What happened on Mackinac Island in 2020

historic high lake levels that we're seeing now storms came to spring which required even more work weather was definitely the key there the only way to prevent that from happening again is to basically do an erosion protection program that involves riprap mackinac has a really long and rich history and it really began when the british moved the fort from the mainland from mackinac city to the island during the american revolutionary war because of the american revolution the british were afraid that there would be a potential attack and so they moved the fort from the mainland to the island because of this high cliff and because of the great natural harbor the war when it ended turned this property over to the united states and american troops came and took control of it and they maintained control until it was attacked by the british again during the war of 1812. he lost it during the war regained it after the war and american troops came back and stayed here all the way until 1895. during the last 25 years the last 20 years that the fort was occupied this island was a national park not many people realized that it was the country's second national park in 1895 when they took the soldiers out of the fort though the federal government no longer had a workforce to take care of the park so they turned the national park over to the state and it became michigan's first state park and it remains a state park today about five years later around the turn of the century they began constructing their road around the island and the road now grows completely around the island it's eight miles long and it is a state highway in michigan it's michigan m185 interestingly it is the only state highway in michigan which you cannot drive a car it's always been very close to the water it is a beautiful path because it is so close to the water but what that means is that when the water rises like it does every once in a while it threatens the stability and the integrity of the road for many decades m185 before was m185 when it was just a road around the island it was just a dirt road and it wasn't designated a highway until the middle part of the 20th century that's when it became m185 and portions were paved over time it's been totally paved now probably for about 30 or 40 years the thing that people noticed at first is obviously no cars and there have been no cars on mackinac island since 1895 and it's authentic there are so many authentic things about mackinac island as soon as you arrive on a ferry you see horses and the horses aren't decorations the horses are working and they're either carrying a dryer they're carrying people well you're on an island so it takes a an effort to get here you're gonna more than likely come with a ferry and sometimes you can fly the logistics involved in living here working here planning any kind of an event here takes planning to a whole new level planning becomes exponential because of all the different things that you have to plan for especially once you get here on mackinac island there are no cars so that makes the challenge up another step but it's an exciting challenge and once you've got it down it it works out very well so i think pre-planning really goes into a lot of what the islanders that live here go through certainly what the workers go through and anybody that's putting on any kind of event that works there it's an island of great contrast it's always been a place that's been very busy in the summer and very quiet in the winter when it was a fur trade center two centuries ago we're very busy in the summer as the summer depot very quiet in the winter it's still that way today now it's tourism is the business and every summer about eight hundred thousand people come the winter population is about five hundred so it just becomes another northern michigan community in the winter high water used to be what we talked about the most as far as what are the things that are going to threaten a particular season that's kind of gone on the back burner this year but certainly not forgotten especially when the high water continued to come and then the storms came this spring which required even more work on the highway so it's just something that we live with and we just look at it as an opportunity instead of maybe taking the the trip around the entire perimeter of mackinac island we're asking people to obviously just take half of the trip and then head up to the through the middle of the island and that's a great experience so people can see something different than maybe they've never seen before for the most part the mackinac island feel is definitely the same the mackinac island experience may change a little bit because there's probably 15 to 20 percent less things that are open but certainly that mackinac island feeling is still there one of the main reasons people come to mackinac island is so that they can actually take the trip and do the loop around the entire island so it's important to what we do and that's why we have invested so much money we have the state has to get it fixed and get it fixed correctly historic high lake levels that we're seeing now coupled with with high winds and some significant storms that the islands has seen through the winter and this spring have uh deteriorated a lot of the existing shoreline repair and the pavement some of the existing shoreline repair was placed in the mid 80s the last time the lake was really high and over the years that has degraded and moved and created some holes in the protection that have now since caused pavement damage one of the challenges is to prevent further erosion from happening because you can resurface the road rebuild the road and when the water comes back up again it'll completely destroy it the only way to prevent that from happening again is to basically do an erosion protection program that involves riprap these large stones that basically serve as a break wall that keep the damaging waves from destroying the road it doesn't look natural but it is a compromise that has to happen in order to ensure that that road is there for the tourists but also for our emergency vehicles for fire trucks for ambulances it really has to be there and so it's a compromise it doesn't look natural but when it's done right and it will be done right it looks really quite attractive and it will really protect the road so considerations were our limited resources that we have at mdot and trying to pick the locations that had the biggest potential for damage in the future trying to maximize the resources we had to the best needs of m185 to keep it together and also working with with the dnr park service to balance the needs of the the residents the tourism and the bike traffic while still providing safe place to work working in the planning process we've had several organizations that have come together to make this project a reality and then a significant coordination effort with the dnr park service maintains them 185 for us having them as a partner working with us to keep the island maintained and the road passable you know until we got to this stage and then also working with them to coordinate uh bike traffic on the island while we're doing the project phase one was completed last fall uh in november and the scope of the work in phase one was to repair two large areas of the uh the road that completely washed out one on the north northeastern side of the island and one on the southern side by air truck so the scope of that work was to repair the immediate damage of the road being gone and to repair the shoreline at that location phase one we did back in december weather was definitely a key there because it was so cold a lot rougher water than in the summertime this year we lucked out never had any any problems with the weather at all every day was pretty nice base two we had a lot of saw cutting that we had to cut out the road put gravel back in rip out the ash ball get ready for phase three and then we went through separated the existing rock to put it off to the side place their fabric they'll get the grade put our tow stones in and put their existing stone back on and then placed all new armor stone roughly four foot thick armor stone the tonnage of the stone was a 11 000 ton and we did roughly a thousand feet of rock the shoreline stabilization that we chose the intention is to really break the waves as they roll into the shore dissipating that energy before it gets to the road that fix was chose chosen as the most economical for the the resources we had we did investigate a few other possibilities but in the end for the the resource we had we felt this was the best long-term project that we could do the tow stone takes the most beating because it's down in the water and then when you start you set your toe stones with your fabric underneath of it and you just work your way up with your armor stone working on macan island is always a challenging process from the beginning of the planning process getting out on the island to do our surveying and coordinating all the uh the planning and design effort is a significant challenge by itself but then constructing the project getting the material to the island presents additional challenges so all the large rock has to be manufactured in a quarry truck to a shipping location and then ship by barge to the island at which point it gets unloaded and temporarily stockpiled and then loaded into trucks that can pass around the island without causing large damage from mainland to mackinac island there's a big difference because you have the truck everything on pretty basically all the equipment's got to be barged on all the stones got to be barged over and then we just can only use one lead to truck the stone to us because there's such a narrow path going around the island there's no other way of getting out of the way it's a waiting game pretty much waiting for stones the biggest challenge mainland you can put multiple trucks on it's easier to get your product to you a lot cheaper to get your product to this is the second phase and then we're working on a third phase to hopefully complete all the remainder of the shoreline repair areas that are needed for for long-term stability to be able to handle this high water and weight and uh in ways that are impacting the shore uh and then we'd be looking at uh paving the road and completely opening it at that time uh we're currently working to try to do that in 2021 we're trying to secure funding as we speak here and we're hoping to complete that work next year when phase three begins what that means is that we're going to have to close down once again m185 on the east side of the island that's the only way to do it because that kind of work can only be done during the summer you can't put asphalt down when it's too cold so it has to be done when we are otherwise open for the season so we will work with the community with mdot we'll close the road and we will communicate to the public that the roads close that there's alternative trails that they can take and uh we just invite the public to still come to the album but to please be patient because this work has to be done and when it's done they will enjoy a much improved road that they'll be able to enjoy for many many decades to come you

Channel: Team Elmer's

Views: 12,218

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: team elmer's, shoreline work, Mackinac Island, Mackinac Island road damage, Mackinac island history, Mackinac island summer, Mackinac island winter, mackinac island michigan history, mackinac island documentary, construction on mackinac island, what is it like to work on mackinac island, shoreline work on mackinac island, shoreline work in Michigan, mackinac island road closure, mackinac island, mackinac island michigan

Id: VIWsmpQ-c0I

Length: 10min 53sec (653 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 04 2020