Gladwin County reached a major milestone as they rebuild from the catastrophic flooding that happened two and half years ago.
The flooding washed out about 50 roads and bridges throughout the county.
The largest road crossing on Bench Road near West Branch is will now be a bridge, completed next week with funding from FEMA.
“What was here before was a round galvanized culvert nine feet in diameter,” said Dave Pettersch, Gladwin County Road Commission Manager. “This had to be much bigger and wider than what was placed here originally. It was undersized, and this is way more reinforced. Built to last 100 years plus.”
The entire Gladwin County Road Commission had some part in the project, but four young men new to the road commission were behind this bridge’s construction.
“It was pretty intimidating having all the parts show up, and we got to put all of this together,” said Jacob Uhl, one of the four Gladwin County Road Commission operators.
“I was more expecting tree cleaning up, grading roads, just road maintenance stuff. I didn’t think bridges would be a part of it,” explained Dakota Burgess, another operator.
When manager Dave Pettersch looks back on what these young men completed in such a short time, he says they are the future.
“It was a lot of tedious work doing 3.25-inch bolts all day long. It’s hard work, but at the end of the day, they produced something that’s going to be here forever,” said Pettersch.
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