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Repairs to Hemlock Street have been completed and the road will reopen to traffic. Crews worked to lay and smooth asphalt on the road on Friday.

Repairs to Hemlock Street have been completed and the road will reopen to traffic. The giant hole where the road was washed away has been filled and the bank shored up with rocks and boulders.

Repairs to Hemlock Street have been completed and the road will reopen to traffic.

Repairs to Hemlock Street have been completed and the road will reopen to traffic. the culvert bank has been shored up. Additional work to repair the concrete will be done next spring.

Repairs to Hemlock Street have been completed and the road will reopen to traffic.

Repairs to Hemlock Street have been completed and the road will reopen to traffic.

Repairs to Hemlock Street have been completed and the road will reopen to traffic.

Repairs to Hemlock Street have been completed and the road will reopen to traffic. Crews worked to lay and smooth asphalt on the road on Friday.

Repairs to Hemlock Street have been completed and the road will reopen to traffic. Crews worked to lay and smooth the asphalt on Friday.

Repairs to Hemlock Street have been completed and the road will reopen to traffic. Crews worked to lay and smooth the asphalt on Friday.

Repairs to Hemlock Street have been completed and the road will reopen to traffic. Crews work to lay asphalt on the road on Friday.

Repairs to Hemlock Street have been completed and the road will reopen to traffic. Crews worked to lay and smooth asphalt on the road on Friday.

BIG RAPIDS — Repairs to Hemlock Street in Big Rapids are completed, and the road has been reopened to traffic.

Department of Public Works director Heather Bowman told the Pioneer the city contracted with Morningstar Enterprises, Inc. to complete the road repairs.

“Morningstar brought in sand and filled in the area that was washed away,” Bowman said. “They put in rocks and boulders to stabilize the bank. We replaced the curb and removed the guardrail. We didn’t feel like that (the guardrail) was really needed at this point. Right now, work being done is just to get the road open.”

Additional work on the underlying culvert will still need to be done, she added, but that will not be an issue as far as opening the road to traffic.

“We are looking for a company to line the culvert and repair the concrete, but that likely won’t be done until spring of summer of 2023,” Bowman said. “The danger of it washing away again is unlikely, because that was caused by a blockage in the culvert during the storm which allowed the water to wash away the street.”

Bowman told the city commission in August that they identified the footbridge at Mitchell Creek, which was completely torn away, as what created the Hemlock Street problem. 

“It is likely it was pushed up against the culvert by the water and built up pressure, causing the water to come up over the street,” she said.

During a city commission meeting in June, the board was presented with options for repairs to the street by Todd Richter with Fleis and VandenBrink.

Those options included replacing the culvert, removing the culvert completely or patching the road and leaving the culvert as is.

Removing the culvert would involve restoring the natural channel of the stream, which would require closing off at least a portion of Hemlock Street to traffic permanently, Richter said. 

Cost estimates for the different options ranged from $2.5 million for replacing the culvert, $1 million for removal of the culvert and $100,000 for repairing the street only.

During a public hearing on the potential street repairs, residents and business owners objected to the closing of Hemlock Street, saying it would likely cause property values to fall and would eliminate a main artery to all the upgrades at Hemlock Park.

The board ultimately decided to repair the road and reopen it to traffic, at a cost of $112,000, which will be reimbursed by the state disaster relief fund approved by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in August.

Cathy Crew has a bachelor's degree in English with teacher certification. She taught ELA for 15 years. She grew up around this area, and recently returned to Big Rapids after having lived in Texas for many years. Her favorite pastimes are traveling and spending time with her two adult children.