Avon Road Bridge Starting to Come Down Today in Rochester Hills
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You'll have to find another east-west route through town for a few months: the rebuilding of the Avon Bridge was scheduled to start today.
The bridge will be closed until June 15.
The closure has been a year in the making. Last February it was found to be rapidly deteriorating; all but one lane in each direction has been closed since then. In a finding that compounded traffic congestion at the busy Avon-Livernois intersection, the Livernois Bridge was also discovered shortly after to be deteriorating. The Livernois Bridge will be replaced next year.
During the closure, the detour route for through traffic will be Livernois Road to Hamlin Road to Rochester Road and vice versa, according to the Road Commission. Livernois will remain open at the Avon Road intersection.
Avon Road will be completely closed at the bridge, but local traffic accessing homes, businesses and Rochester College east of the bridge will be allowed to use Avon Road east of the bridge (accessing the road from Rochester Road).
The Avon Bridge project involves removing and replacing the bridge over the Clinton River just east of Livernois. The new bridge will be constructed of pre-stressed concrete and contain the same five lanes as the existing bridge. The project will include repaving, new guardrails and relocation of a water main.
The work will be performed by Dan's Excavating of Shelby Township.
Check out our live traffic before you head out. You can also keep up with live traffic from your mobile device by downloading the Patch app (a tab for live, local traffic is included in the app).
David Gifford
6:38 pm on Monday, February 6, 2012
I would assume that means no kayaking through that area until the bridge is complete.
Marty Rosalik
8:51 pm on Monday, February 6, 2012
As a little kid there was a one lane steel girder bridge there. Who knows it may have been one of those Carnegie bridges. It was a 2 mile walk down a dirt Avon road to sit on the bridge and throw stones in the river.
Kind of sad that I"m a year older this month and holding up better than that younger bridge.
David Gifford
6:31 pm on Tuesday, February 7, 2012
I've seen in an old map that there was once only one bridge over the Clinton River. It appears that Livernois and Avon met at a "T" on both sides of the river and funneled onto one bridge. Is this the one you're talking about?
Scot Beaton
1:49 am on Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Lots of conversation in the Patch about government spending some of the comments have been mine...thanks Patch for the posts. Here's a fun comparison one Sunday Super Bowl 30 second commercial about $3.5 million, Avon bridge designed to last 40+ years about $3.2 million.