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Drivers, residents adjust as construction begins on Bagley Street bridge

News Photo by Julie Riddle As traffic speeds past, South 11th Avenue resident Debbie Ludwiczak shares concerns about the increased traffic on her street after repairs to the Bagley Street bridge closed that road on Monday.

ALPENA — For residents on several of Alpena’s residential streets, Monday was the first day of what promises to be nearly a year of busy traffic passing by their front windows.

A major renovation project on the Bagley Street bridge over Thunder Bay River began Monday, closing that road between Word of Life Baptist Church, north of the bridge, and the Arthur E. Sytek Roadside Park, just to its south.

Traffic that usually flows on Long Rapids Road and North Bagley Street, which connect U.S.-23 North and the shopping district on M-32, has now been rerouted through the city, including down largely residential South 11th Avenue and South 9th Avenue.

Throughout Monday, an increase in traffic increased the wait time for those attempting to turn out of businesses along West Chisholm Street between the Thunder Bay River bridge and the Alpena County Courthouse.

All of Monday, lines of vehicles waiting to turn left onto Chisholm stretched well down 11th Avenue, according to resident Debbie Ludwiczak, who lives at the corner of South 11th Avenue and Lockwood Street.

News Photo by Julie Riddle A worker carries sandbags at the end of a shift on the first day of repairs to the Bagley Street bridge in Alpena on Monday.

She’s not worried about the uptick in traffic on the already busy street, but she is worried what will happen if big trucks start rattling by, Ludwiczak said.

Repairs made to 11th Avenue in fall left the road looking worse and feeling unstable, she thinks, and some neighbors have reported that, since the repairs, their houses now shake when trucks go by, Ludwiczak said.

“I would be the first to admit, I don’t know anything about road construction,” Ludwiczak said. “But, I don’t get what was done. I don’t see it as any improvement.”

In September, the city shifted funds from other anticipated projects to shore up 11th Avenue in anticipation of increased traffic during the Bagley Street closure. The $55,000 earmarked for the upgrade was approved to repair the worst of the road’s joints — lines cut across a road to control cracking from shrinking and other stresses to a road — and several failing sections of concrete.

The more than 350 joints in the section of 11th Avenue under repair would have cost the city at least $500,000 to repair, City Engineer Rich Sullenger told the Alpena Municipal Council at a meeting in September.

Nearby, on 9th Avenue, Victoria Smith was babysitting her grandchild on Monday.

While other residents on the street said they didn’t notice too much of a change, Smith said she’d definitely observed an uptick in traffic Monday.

In summer, the extra traffic could be a worry for families with small children who live on the street, Smith said.

“Hopefully, it’ll settle down a little bit, ” Smith said. “But, who knows.”

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