After a brief powerful rain storm rolled through northern Michigan last week, road closures on major thoroughfares have made travel in the area more difficult.
M-119 in Emmet County remains closed in five places. In Antrim County, state highways M-88 and M-66 are closed in multiple places as well.
For more detailed information on the road closures, visit MDOT's Fact Sheet.
Providence Organic Farm in Central Lake relies heavily on drive-by traffic. After the storm, they found themselves trapped between two washouts on M-88.
"We had to call people and tell them the routes they could take here. We had to send them directions," said Andrea Romeyn, who owns the farm with her husband.
Despite the difficulty getting to the farm, Romeyn says business over the 4th of July weekend was just as good, if not better than last year.
"It was surprising how many people came out and supported us," she said. "They would get to a roadblock and find out they can’t go that way, so they’d turn around and get to another roadblock. They were so willing to get here that they just figured it out."
James Lake with the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) says there is no timeline for when the washed out highways will be fully repaired.
"We’re still in the investigatory phase where we’re looking at exactly what failures occurred," he said. "But we hope to know, in the coming weeks, a little better idea on how we intend to fix those roads. Then comes the design of the fix, determining a funding source, and the schedule."
The washouts have come amidst a string of harsh weather conditions that have illuminated the weak points in Antrim county’s infrastructure.
Flooding this spring left roads closed and almost overtopped the Bellaire Dam. A heavy flood two years ago washed out a main thoroughfare near Alden.
Lake says the repairs will hopefully address the infrastructure needs of the future, despite escalating climate uncertainty and patterns of more severe weather.
"Unfortunately we’ve seen increased incidents of, what we might have considered in the past to be 100 year storms, are becoming more frequent," he said. "We also have aging infrastructure. So anytime we’re replacing something fully, particularly culverts, we’re looking to design them for what has become the new normal for increased water flows."
At Providence Organic Farm, Romeyn is thankful for the ongoing customer support, but she's also thinking about the future.
"After summer vacation's over and people are on their way home from work, if the road’s not open, they’re probably going to be like, 'Oh well, I’m not gonna go to Providence because it’s out of my way,'" Romeyn said.
MDOT is asking motorists who are traveling in these areas to obey all posted traffic signs and to refrain from driving through the barricades.
***IPR has now learned that MDOT, using ground-penetrating radar, has determined the washout on M-88 closest to US-31 is now safe for one lane of traffic.
