Multi-million-dollar bridges will replace Crystal River culverts: County Road 675 closes this Fall
Update to our original story published in November 2021 about the collaborative effort to replace the Crystal River culverts.
The Leelanau County Road Commission has announced that part of County Road 675, northeast of Glen Arbor, will be closed starting on Sept. 5 to replace Crossing #4 at Tucker Lake creek. (See Project Location Map on right). This project will include removal of the existing culvert and replacement with a much wider flat bottom culvert by the end of November. Part of S. Dunns Farm Road (CR-675) will be closed to thru traffic and rerouted around Glen Lake for the duration of the project. Paving over the new culvert and slope restoration will be completed by the end of November. Dunns Farm Road will re-open to thru traffic on December 1. Construction of the other three culverts will take place in 2024 and 2025.
By Joe VanderMeulen
Sun contributor
This is a story about several big problems that overlap, literally. This is also a story about governmental and nonprofit organizations working together to turn problems into opportunities.
Just outside of Glen Arbor, a well-traveled section of County Road 675 is imperiled as it crosses three sets of undersized culverts slowly crumbling into the Crystal River. That’s a multi-million-dollar problem for the Leelanau County Road Commission.
Commission Manager Brendan Mullane explains, “We’re talking about the Crystal View section of road. There are three river crossings with culverts and the overflow culvert from Tucker Lake. They’ve been talked about and worked on for years and they’re near the end of their lives. They’re not failing tomorrow, but they’re going to fail and need to be replaced.”
The Conservation Resource Alliance (CRA) has been working with the Road Commission and other organizations to identify culvert replacement options that restore a more natural flow to the Crystal River. CRA Biologist DJ Shook says that all three culvert systems are undersized, restricting stream flows and creating a barrier to fish, wildlife, and human paddlers trying to enjoy the stream.
Shook points out obvious problems of erosion and areas where water seeps around the culverts beneath the roadway. “The water not only goes through the culverts but is piping between and under them,” he says. “That’s a problem for roads. They can suddenly fail from a sink hole forming right under the road which can be quite dangerous.”
Another governmental organization working with CRA and the County Road Commission to restore the Crystal River is the Grand Traverse Band (GTB) of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. A Restoration Specialist for GTB, Brett Fessell explains that the Crystal River is itself a transportation corridor.
“Fish, otters, turtles, a wide spectrum of wildlife species use these rivers as corridors or highways to move through the landscape,” Fessell says. “By forcing the river through a series of small pipes, you exclude those things that move along the riverbanks and force fish to battle unnaturally concentrated, high-velocity water flows. And most species of fish in the Great Lake region are not strong swimmers.”
By restricting water flows like small dams, the Crystal River culverts have also altered stream geometry and morphology while preventing the natural movement of sediment down the river. Forced through these undersized culverts, the water speeds up and shoots through these metal tubes at high velocity, scouring out plunge pools at the downriver end of the pipes.
A civil engineer with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS- USDA), Andrea Paladino points out that the plunge pools result in culverts that are perched above the natural river bottom.
“We’re altering the stream morphology at the crossing,” Paladino says, “which alters the stream’s ability to provide the necessary conditions for aquatic organisms of all different kinds to navigate upstream.”
Joining the NRCS and the other organizations seeking a free-flowing Crystal River is the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Superintendent Scott Tucker says they are working with the larger group to restore the Crystal River’s natural functions.
“Although a small piece of Sleeping Bear Dunes, the Crystal River is a pretty important piece,” Tucker said. “The river provides access for the general public to recreate; it also provides a key wildlife link for fish, otters, mink and other species important to the ecology of the region.”
Over the last three years, project leaders have been meeting with the Technical Committee charged with balancing the water levels desired in Glen Lake and the Crystal River in conjunction with a court-ordered Water Level Committee. This group has reviewed project ideas and proposals brought forward by CRA, GTB and the County Road Commission expressing concern and offering suggestions along the way.
Committee members have raised concerns about maintaining court-ordered water levels in Glen Lake and appropriate water flows in the Crystal River.
A civil engineering firm, Gosling Czubak of Traverse City, was contracted by the Leelanau County Road Commission to design road-stream crossing structures that will assure safe traffic movement while restoring the Crystal River to a natural flow system. As Mullane points out, these projects must go through a permitting process under Michigan’s Department of Energy, Great Lakes and Environment (EGLE), while meeting the requirements of USDA’s NRCS and other potential funders.
“Our consulting engineering firm, Gosling Czubek, has been in the design phase of these bridges for several years now,” Mullane said. “The intent is to build timber bridges at two of the crossings. They will match many other bridges in natural settings and it’s a tried-and-true method for providing a free-flowing channel with the necessary bank area for the frequent high flow conditions.”
The engineering plans call for the construction of a concrete and steel structure to replace the culverts under CR 675 closest to M-22. That will keep the two road surfaces closely matched in elevation. The two sets of culverts further east, including the “shoot-the-tube” culverts, are to be replaced with classic wood bridges providing a lot of headroom for paddlers, ending the need for portages across the road. Plans call for the replacement of the Tucker Lake overflow culvert with a wide and substantial concrete box culvert.
By spanning the full river channel and a little overflow space (the area known as bank full), the new bridges will provide unimpeded stream flow. According to the project partners, the Crystal will eventually re-establish natural channels where there are now wide backwater areas caused by undersized culverts. However, none of these changes will alter the water levels in Glen Lake or flows to the river through the Crystal River Dam under the oversight of the Technical Committee.
Now that the engineering drawings are complete, the project team is preparing to seek bids for construction by qualified contractors. As Fessell points out, the bids are necessary to properly price the project and seek funding from several sources.
According to Fessell, “There is a likelihood of fully funding the work on these crossings with granted funds [from] several sources, including the Resource Conservation Partnership Program operated by NRCS, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and the Bureau of Indian Affairs roads program.”
Tucker says that the bridges will be a very welcome improvement to the Crystal River. “The long-term goal,” he explained, “is to reconnect the Crystal. That goal will provide for floodplain management and for sediment to naturally reposition throughout the river and lakeshore. Hopefully, the wood bridges will blend into the experience for someone kayaking the river and, hopefully, highlight the river’s presence for someone passing by on the roadway.”
The Leelanau County Road Commission will sponsor a public information and comment session next spring before construction plans are finalized. All the project partners will be present to detail the scientific research and engineering involved in the project and to answer questions.
Joe VanderMeulen is executive director of NatureChange.org, an online magazine devoted to conversations about conservation and climate. Watch his video story, “Restoring the Crystal River” below.
