Celebration for Longbridge re-opening set for Saturday.

– Contrbuted photo by Ron Beeber

Celebration for Longbridge re-opening set for Saturday.

PENTWATER TOWNSHIP – After nearly seven months, Longbridge Road will be re-opened, and residents are ready to celebrate.

The road has been closed due to flooding caused by record high water levels. The Oceana County Road Commission recently received permission earlier this month from Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) – formerly the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) – to raise the road higher. Since then, Hallack Contracting – contracted by the road commission – has been working to fix the road so it can be re-opened before winter settles in.

With the project wrapping up, a celebration is set for Saturday, Nov. 23, at 3 p.m.

“Three thousand Pentwater-area people are going to be reunited for the first time in nearly seven months when Longbridge Road will officially be reopened to much togetherness and fanfare,” said Mark Trierweiler, who formed the coalition, Open Longbridge Now.

– Contrbuted photo by Ron Beeber

“The contractor is placing the geo tech material and fill right over the existing road,” explained OCRC Managing Director Mark Timmer earlier this month. “I met Dan Hallack, owner of Hallack Contracting, on site there about a month and a half ago to see if we could de-water the road. We both agreed this would not be effective due to freezing and plowing in the winter, and the fact we would be trapping water on the road because of the existing dip.

“Dan made me a proposal to lift the road over the existing pavement,” Timmer said. “I want to give Dan Hallack credit as this was his idea, and it allows us to do this job even though we have high water. The updated forecast doesn’t have the water going down any time soon, and in fact calls for higher Lake Michigan levels next spring and summer. Lake Michigan is what ultimately controls the level of Pentwater Lake and the Pentwater River and marsh where the bridge on Longbridge Road is.

“The excavating and material is $271,712.50 which includes $156,000 worth of rip rap,” said Timmer. “The paving is $51,250. We anticipate to have somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000 in engineering when we are done, which included extensive surveying of the river, marsh and surrounding land to develop a hydraulic model that EGLE required.”

“We are excited to build this great project and appreciate the support and encouragement of many citizens who look forward to its completion.”

“People who for the last seven months could yell to a neighbor but had to drive for 20 minutes to actually visit that person, are about to have their nightmare vanquished,” Trierweiler said. “Parents who rented homes in Pentwater Village rather than subject their children to a 55-minute drive on the icy backroads of Pentwater Township are about to feel relieved. People who put two years’ worth of mileage on their automobiles in seven months are about to get some badly needed financial relief. FedEx Drivers will no longer have to split their routes in half, or work late, because Pentwater-delivery times had doubled – are going to be able to eat dinner with their families again. People who haven’t been able to visit Pentwater because their compromised health required that they be near medical care facilities get to come home. Pentwater businesses will finally get their customers back, most of whom were forced by convenience to shop in nearby Hart. Elected and appointed people who have been taking calls from angry constituents are about to get some happy relief.

“The end of separation, fear and inconvenience will officially come to an end at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 23, on the newly raised road surface of the now-infamous Longbridge Road where residents of Pentwater Village have been invited to meet at the center of the bridge with residents of Pentwater Township, all of whom have been separated by a 9-mile detour while the road was closed,” said Trierweiler.

“It’s a celebration that’s been seven months in the making and a lot of people worked hard for this moment, including the Oceana County Road Commission, whose extraordinary efforts resulted in the reopening before the winter driving season was upon us.”