Streets, Highways

Following high water levels, Boyne City, Mich.’s, North Lake Street Bridge required repairs, and the city had the goal of completing them before the National Morel Mushroom Festival. (Photo provided by Boyne City, Mich.)

The festival goes on:

Boyne City completes bridge project in time to welcome morel fans

By BETH ANNE BRINK-COX | The Municipal

Boyne City, like so many other northern Michigan towns, got its start in the lumbering business. At the height of Boyne City’s lumbering era, the population had grown to nearly 6,000 permanent residents. There was actually a shortage of homes at the turn of the century; the call went out from city fathers, and the result was development and growth, which propelled the village of Boyne into Boyne City. In 2012, downtown Boyne City achieved its listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

It’s a beautiful small town, a mix of historic homes on quiet streets, a library, and smaller, newer homes as well. There’s a bustling Main Street, complete with the old-fashioned hardware store. There are restaurants and an ice cream shop—Kilwin’s—whose smells of caramel corn and fudge draws tourists and residents straight through the door. Boyne City has a back-in-time feel to it that makes everyone feel like they know everyone, even if they’re a summer tourist.

And there are parks, 10 altogether, more parks than might be expected in a town this size (population 3,721 in 2020). They include Old City Park, Veterans Memorial Park, Riverside Park, Sunset Park, Cannery Park, Peninsula Beach Park, just to name a few. Veterans Park, right on the edge of Lake Charlevoix, hosts the farmers’ market all summer long.

In addition to the National Morel Festival, there are countless other celebrations and gatherings in the parks around town. (Photo provided by Boyne City, Mich.)

Also along the water’s edge is a bridge, the North Lake Street Bridge, not to be confused with the 1,200-foot SkyBridge opening this fall at Boyne Mountain Ski Resort, the world’s longest timber-towered suspension bridge. The North Lake Street Bridge is 50 years old, easily crossed on foot and has just undergone some significant repair. High water levels had caused flooding and damage along the Lake Charlevoix shoreline area; the combination of high water and wave action resulted in a partial closure of Veterans Memorial Park, restricting vehicle and pedestrian access and closure of the road in 2020.

City Manager Mark Cain said the repair work began April 12. The hope was to have it completed within a month, just in time for the annual National Morel Mushroom Festival, held May 12-15, 2022. It’s a big event that’s been going on for decades. If legend is to be believed, it was originally organized during a bar fight to legitimize bragging rights for the area’s top morel pickers, and Boyne City looks forward to it every year. It’s a family festival with good food — morels abounding — and music and all kinds of activities. But it’s more than just a party. The proceeds from the festival go toward college scholarships for local area students. In 2021, $3,000 was awarded to various students. When asked if the deadline had been met, Cain smiled and said, “We just made it by the skin of our teeth. The finishing touches went up just a couple of days before—handrails along the edges and so on. So everything went as planned, and we were very happy about that and happy with our crew, which was Manthei Construction from Charlevoix. They did a great job.”

Cain continued, “We were also lucky and happy that the street closure during the repair didn’t hurt the downtown businesses. It was really confined only to the westerly part and didn’t extend much into the traffic. There are three lanes across, and we only had to close off the westerly/southbound lane, for the workers and construction equipment. There really wasn’t a real shutdown and pedestrian traffic wasn’t much affected.”

There are two large culverts underneath the bridge, Cain said, and “typically, there’s enough clear space for kayaks and canoes to go through. You can see them going under the bridge, just gliding through. But the waters of Lake Charlevoix had gone so high that the culverts were almost completely underwater. And the westerly wall of the bridge had been just hammered by the lake. It needed to be rebuilt.”

Cain continued, “We had engineers and bridge specialists, and they designed things to withstand and absorb the wave action. The culverts remain—reused in the new design that rebuilt the shoreline. They calculated everything — the sizes of large stones, the fabric wrap and the small stones that filled in between. It shouldn’t deteriorate in the future. The bridge is at the east end of Lake Charlevoix, and there are large fetches of wind from west to east that pick up force and wave action. The bridge took the brunt of that, Lake Charlevoix is just one draw to Boyne City and offers plenty of recreational opportunities such as canoeing and kayaking. The lake’s higher water levels have resulted in damaged along its shores. (Photo provided by Boyne City, Mich.)

and it weakened and eroded, degrading the outside walls, and the stone and concrete were deemed no longer safe. So we had abutments replaced on the west side, to protect against rising water levels. And new rails and sidewalks were part of the plan, too.”

But Cain made it clear that it was simply water damage. “Not ice damage. Most winters, there is enough movement of the river current to prevent that kind of damage, that kind of ice formation. Other areas and shorelines are more impacted by moving ice, especially in early spring. But here, I’ve never noticed anything like that from the mouth of the river.”

Cain added, “There were other projects the city did to mitigate the impact. In Cannery Park, there was erosion along the waterline. Peninsula Beach Park was affected, too, so we’ve been sitting tight to see what will be needed most and if there will be any funds to help with the protection and prevention. There weren’t any such funds for the bridge project. The city budget paid through the general fund resources, which were shifted to meet this most immediate need. By the time we need to do something more, the funds will be available.”

With 38 years of city management, 20 of them in Boyne City, Cain knows his stuff.

“A few years ago, we did a streetscape improvement,” he said, noting streetscapes are defined as an artistic representation of a street, with the visual elements including the road, adjoining buildings, street furniture, trees and open spaces that form the street’s character. This is why sidewalk tables and chairs are commonly seen outside of restaurants and ice cream parlors, and indeed, Boyne City has those in several locations.

Knowing his stuff, however, means looking ahead for any potential problems. While future weather can’t always be predicted, “the Army Corps of Engineers, teamed with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has determined that the 30-year cycle patterns they’ve studied—releasing new information every 10 years—look as if they’ll become shorter, like maybe a five- to six-year fluctuation, years where the waters will be higher than average or lower than average. Is this part of global warming? Seems possible to me, but I wouldn’t be the one to say so definitively,” said Cain. Keeping that in mind, though, means he’s going to be keeping a close watch not only on those weather charts but also the condition of his city, the water lines and structures there.

Boyne City has a lively summer tradition called Stroll the Streets on Friday evenings. The work just completed means residents and tourists will walk about freely, enjoying the music, lingering over dinner or grabbing an ice cream cone while watching the boats on the lake—whatever says summer evening to them. When North Lake Street Bridge was repaired, a new sidewalk and rail was installed, improving access to nearby Veterans Memorial Park and other destinations in Boyne City for pedestrians. (Photo provided by Boyne City, Mich.)