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A Charlevoix County Road Remains Closed, Residents Express Concern With Construction Delay

A road in Charlevoix County has been shut down for about three months, delaying travel and leaving some people wondering why it hasn’t been fixed.

Shadow Trail in Walloon Lake has been closed to traffic since a culvert collapsed back in May.

As of Tuesday there’s still a huge hole in the road. To get around it, people traveling north or east from the west side of Shadow Trail have to take a detour going all the way down to Boyne City and back up.

9&10’s Aaron Parseghian spoke with those affected by the detour, and heard from the road commission on what’s causing the hold up.

“It’s something I have no control over, but it would be nice to get it fixed,” said Clute Road Resident Don May Jr.

Some people in Melrose Township are wondering if Shadow Trail will ever be opened back up to traffic.

“It’s almost like we don’t hear from anybody, we’ve never had anybody stop by the house you know to ask us what we thought. See the people around here have concerns about it but the people that don’t have to use the road don’t have any concern at all,” added May.

The closure has caused delays for both people living in the area and those traveling through it.

“The most annoying part is, I do a lot of work in Boyne falls. I used to just go up on 75 turn on Old State Road to Addis St. and then in five minutes I’m at work. Now I have to go clear into Boyne, clear up to Boyne City, and then to work,” said Diane May, who also lives on Clute Road.

The Charlevoix County Road Commission says utility work is causing delays.

“Consumers [Energy] had to relocate their power line temporarily underground and that’s a main feed between Walloon Lake and Boyne City, so they couldn’t just shut it down for a while,” said Charlevoix County Road Commission Engineer Jim Vanek

Vanek says they’ve been working hard to make sure construction begins this week.

“There’s the perception that nothings been going on, but behind the scenes a lot has been going on, we’ve been working hard getting everything ready to start tomorrow,” added Vanek

With no further delays, the culvert replacement is expected to take two to three weeks.

Something locals say can’t come soon enough.

“We’re going to go down and christen it once its fixed, everybody’s going to get together and go down there, it will be nice,” added Don May. 

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