Bay City's Lafayette Bridge project is one of the projects that's been earmarked for funding review by the Michigan House Appropriations Committee. The funding in question, a $1.6 million grant, was appropriated during the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Last week, the House committee voted to axe $645 million from the state budget. House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Twp, claimed the cuts were made to address waste, fraud and abuse in the budget. On Tuesday, the state Senate voted to restore most of the funding, which still needs to pass in the House. It is unknown if this will include the bridge project.
At the Bay City Commissioner's meeting on Tuesday, Mayor Christopher Girard vocalized his confusion about the removal of the grant.
"We know the streets are bad. In Lansing they advocated for streets and roads and repairs, and to kind of pull it out like they have is a little frustrating," Girard said.
Construction on the new bridge is already underway, with the original bridge having been demolished in late April of this year. If the funding is not restored the city will have to find other means to replace it.
"It is going to impact us. It's going to hit our budget, it was budgeted for this year," said City Manager Dana Muscott at the meeting. "We're going to have to take a look at what we're going to cut from the street budget, which we don't want to do."
The Lafayette Bridge is currently scheduled to be reopened in 2027.
Until then, the only open non-toll bridge across the Saginaw River is Veteran's Memorial. The remaining bridges, the Independence and Liberty, are currently maintained by the Bay City Bridge Partners and charge a toll for each cross over.
