M-119 trail set for fall construction

Will follow north side of highway; Weque Golf Course section to remain as is, for now

Following a lengthy meeting with MDOT in Gaylord on Monday, May 18, HARBOR, Inc. executive director Danna Widmar was confident enough to state that a non-motorized trail will, in fact, be built this fall along the north side of M-119 from Pleasantview Road to Harbor Springs.

HARBOR, Inc and local elected officials have been working with MDOT for a number of years to get the trail completed from where it currently ends at the intersection of Pleasantview and M-119. Much of the work involved securing as many as easements as possible from property owners along that stretch of highway so that the trail could be moved a safer distance from the busy roadway.

Engineering challenges and other snags along the way often left the project in a kind of start and stop mode.

At Monday’s session with MDOT, Widmar said “we pretty much worked through all the things that could go wrong and resolved things with some reasonable decisions, I think.”

As it stands, the trail will be constructed from Pleasantview to Emmet Heights road where it will stop at the Wequetonsing Golf Course. It will resume again after the driveway entrance to Wequetonsing.

Widmar said the Wequetonsing stretch may yet be resolved in time for this year’s construction. If not, she said it could be handled in a second phase at some point.

Where property owners elected not to grant easements, the trail will follow the right-of-way along the highway. Instead of white delineator pipes marking those areas, MDOT has agreed to use striping. Widmar said that would seem to be much better compromise from an aesthetic standpoint.

Construction is currently slated to take place from Sept. 8 through Oct. 30, Widmar reported.

The project is expected to cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $800,000, Widmar said. Some 80-percent of the funding is coming from the federal government. Widmar said the remaining funding is coming from the MDOT Grayling Transportation Service Center.

On Tuesday, Widmar reported receiving confirmation from MDOT’s real estate division that the easement documents were in hand, giving her further confidence that the project was a go.

This is part of the May 20, 2009 online edition of Harbor Light Newspaper.

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