Wayne County closes Denton Road bridge, ‘unsafe for travel’

After an engineering dive team completed an underwater structural analysis of the Denton Road Bridge, Wayne County closed the bridge on Monday to all traffic until further notice.
The bridge over Belleville Lake/the Huron River connects the City of Belleville with Van Buren Township and Hillside Cemetery and the bridge technically is in the township.
Van Buren Township Supervisor Kevin McNamara informed his board members in a 5:15 p.m. Monday memo that he had just been informed the engineering report has listed the wooden structural beams going into the water as being unsafe for travel.
“The county assures us that the bridge foundation will be repaired as quickly as possible,” Supervisor McNamara said. “Quickly probably means the spring as they will need engineering, design, and a bid process.
“The work being performed is the same work done on the Grosse Ile Bridge,” he wrote. “The pylon section of the Grosse Ile Bridge was injecting a concrete slurry around the wooden timbers.”
He said he is not an engineer and this is his best guess from what was said in his discussion with the county. He said he expects it to cost a few million dollars, from $2 million to $5 million, but far less than a bridge replacement that would take years and be tens of millions of dollars, as he was told.
McNamara said the wood timbers date back to 1927 with some reconditioning done in 1947.
McNamara said he asked the county about raising the bridge or adding a walking path through the rebuild and he said the county stressed that the work is underwater and the visible part of the bridge will probably not be touched.
The Iron Belle Trail segment now under construction by the township is planned to come over that bridge into the city. McNamara told the VBT board that he would keep them informed as he gets more information.
Before the Belleville City Council meeting on Monday evening, there was talk about this being a good time to bring back the Historical Society’s idea of a covered bridge at that location.
Fire Chief Brian Loranger said the bridge there now is low and just clears his head when he is sitting on his pontoon boat and riding under that bridge.
DPW Chief Rick Rutherford said the county said it would be putting up detour signs soon.
Police Chief Dave Robinson said he has informed his officers to divert the right lane of traffic coming south into the city on the Belleville Road Bridge into the left lane that becomes Main Street earlier than it was diverted.
Those turning to cross the Denton Road Bridge when southbound had used the right lane to turn. That lane is now being diverted into the left lane earlier on the Belleville Bridge to go southbound into the city.
On Tuesday, Wayne County sent out information on the detour. It said Denton Road will be closed to through traffic west of Belleville Road. Westbound Denton Road will be detoured northbound on Belleville Road to westbound South I-94 Service Road back to Denton Road.
Eastbound Denton Road will be detoured eastbound on South I-94 Service Drive to southbound Belleville Road and back to Denton Road.
For more information, contact the 24-hour customer service center at 888.ROAD.CREW (1-888-762-3273).