Grand Traverse County speeds Beitner Bridge rebuild, repair expected to take months

Beitner Road will remain closed from Williams Road to River Road for months, even as Grand Traverse County pushes the bridge replacement ahead of schedule after the April flooding washed it out. The detour runs along Cass Road while the Grand Traverse County Road Commission works with the Michigan Department of Transportation on traffic signals, and officials say the rebuild is an extensive project that will take time.

The bridge failure hit a corridor that carries daily traffic in and out of Traverse City, and the county has already treated it as an emergency access issue, not just a construction delay. The Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office warned commuters when the bridge failed, and barricades went up at Chums Corner and at Keystone and River roads to keep traffic away from the damaged span.

The speedup comes from the fact that the project was already in motion. The county road commission had planned to replace the Beitner Road bridge as soon as 2026, and design work was underway before the flooding struck. That head start matters now, because officials said final design is being accelerated rather than started from scratch. Even with that advantage, the county has said residents should expect at least six months before the road reopens.

The replacement had also been set to receive federal help. In June 2025, the road commission said a federal grant would cover 80 percent of the cost, which it estimated at about $4 million to $4.5 million. County staff had been weighing a single-span bridge that would remove the two tubes under the existing crossing and allow a more natural flow of the river. They were also considering a wider three-lane configuration with a center turn lane to handle future growth along the Beitner and Keystone corridor toward Chums Corner.

The project carries added urgency because the surrounding area already posed traffic conflicts before the flood, especially near the parking lots for Beitner Park and the Keystone Rapids Trailhead. In summer, kayakers and tubers regularly cross Beitner Road there, adding pressure to a road network that now has to absorb detoured traffic as well.

The county declared a local State of Emergency on April 14 because of flooding, and by April 20 the Boardman River had dropped below flood advisory stage as the emergency response shifted into recovery. County officials urged residents not to drive through flooded roadways, warned that emergency responders could be delayed, and opened a damage-reporting process tied to possible federal aid. For Beitner Road, the practical message is straightforward: the county has moved the rebuild forward, but the disruption will still last well into the coming months.