Each year 4 million vehicles cross the Straits of Mackinac from Michigan’s Lower Peninsula to Upper Peninsula. The has been connecting Michiganders since 1954 and is known as the fifth-longest suspension bridge in the world.
This Midwestern Masterpiece requires regular maintenance. That’s where Ned McLennan and his team step in. Ned McLennan, the Transportation and Maintenance Supervisor says, “The bridge is in absolutely beautiful shape. It’s an old structure but most of the time you wouldn’t know it!”
The bulk of their projects take place after Labor Day and before Memorial Day each year. The crew, therefore, has a short window before Mother Nature sends snow and cold weather our way! Today they’re repairing and reinstalling grates that needed some T.L.C. “It’s very ambitious to go for four pieces in a week and two days but the guys are excited about and want to get it done,” explains McLennan.
Below the bridge is where the bones are— this is where the maintenance crew spends a good chunk of their time. “When you walk under there you feel how big it is. every time I’m down there and how magnificent it is for them to have built that,” says McLennan.
For more information on the Mackinac Bridge or the projects they’re working on the remainder of this year, .
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