Port Huron, MI — The Blue Water Bridge Plaza Expansion Project has a completion goal for 2025, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation. The process was first talked about in the early 2000s and the city, county, and property owners near the project have been waiting for resolution for many years.
The plan calls for funding to be from a $26 million federal INFRA grant and the sale of bonds, along with Blue Water Bridge funds.
The original scope of the project has been reduced, but the price tag is still estimated to be at $300 million. The downsized plan will have less impact on local traffic on Pine Grove Avenue than the 2009 plan.
Getting shovels in the ground will take a while as another environmental re-evaluation and feasibility study will need to be done. Final design and bidding out the construction contracts won’t even begin until 2023. Actual construction is not expected to be completed until late 2025.
Five studies have already been done in the past two decades, and several city blocks have been cleared. A million dollar mitigation settlement was paid to the City of Port Huron by MDOT as they lost the tax base from the cleared land.
Reporting for WGRT – Jennie McClelland
