The Mackinac Bridge Authority is already preparing for the traffic backups expected during the 60th annual Labor Day Bridge Walk.
The bridge will be closed to traffic from 6:30am to noon.
The bridge authority said locals will be impacted the most, but they hope to clear the traffic backlog within a few hours of the bridge reopening.
Bob Sweeney is the CEO of the authority. He said locals should plan ahead to get over the bridge before the walk begins.
“We’ll have many many operational meetings with us, the state police, emergency management, on both sides of the bridge,” Sweeney said. “And we’ll address these issues as they come up. But there’s going to be a big learning curve for us, and hopefully we get most of it right this year to inconvenience the locals as little as possible.”
This is the first time the bridge will be fully shut down to traffic during the walk.
“We know that typically we have about 9,000 vehicles that cross the bridge during that five and a half hour closure,” said Sweeney. “Most of those cross during the last two hours. So opening it up exactly at noon is really important for us to do. With advanced notice of the scheduled closure, that most people will change the time that they’re arriving.”
The authority plans to show some extra care to those waiting to cross.
“So we have plans in place to address that, the potential backups on the side of the roads with some porta johns on the side of the road, and a courtesy patrol van to hand out water and snacks,” Sweeney said. “So we’re hopeful that’s going to be minimized but we’re going to prepare for the worst.”
Sweeney said the bridge will be closed due to concerns over recent terrorist attacks that have used vehicles as weapons. But he also said there have been no specific threats made against the Mackinac Bridge.
