Mackinac Bridge Maintenance Project Will Start in 2024

The project is expected to take three years to complete.

According to a post that was shared on the Mackinac Sheriff's Facebook page, a major construction project is scheduled to start in just a few short years.

The first major work to the Mackinac Bridge since its construction is slated to begin, when stringers and cross beams beneath the deck, or suspended roadway, are replaced. A three-year project to remove the deck (both the steel-grate portion in the center lanes and the asphalt-covered outside lines) and replace all of the 1,500 cross beams in the bridge's suspended span, which run horizontally every 5 feet.

It's not likely that the bridge will completely close for this project; instead, it will probably close down a lane at a time. The bridge has only completely closed for short spurts 20 times in its 60+ year history; the longest closure was in February of 2018. That closure lasted for 20 hours and 15 minutes because of falling ice.

The project that is slated to begin in 2024 is predicted to cost $94 million and will be the biggest overhaul to the bridge since it was built.

According to the Detroit Free Press, another project is predicted to start in 2031 that will "replace the deck or roadway on the bridge's approach spans, the portions of the bridge before the suspended center, on both the north and south sides."

I've already had Facebook friends who say that they won't cross the bridge while it's under construction. Fear of bridges is called Gephyrophobia, in case you were wondering.