FOIA request reveals project cost is triple what’s been publicly disclosed.
Project web page: https://groundworkcenter.org/stop-hartman-hammond-bridge/
Traverse City, MI—The price to build the proposed Hartman-Hammond bridge-and-road project through the Boardman River Valley south of Traverse City has skyrocketed to as much as $320 million. If built, it likely would be the most expensive county-owned bridge in the entire nation.
The cost estimate, revealed through a Groundwork Freedom of Information Act request, is triple what the Grand Traverse County Road Commission has publicly stated. The estimate does not include the cost to acquire right-of-way, including homes and businesses that would be acquired and destroyed for the project.
Road Commission Manager Brad Kluczynski estimated $100 million in interviews just one year ago when his board of directors voted unanimously to build the 1.9-mile road project and its 2,200-foot-long bridge. The previously undisclosed $320 million estimate appears in a formal document the commission submitted in March 2023 to the Michigan Department of Transportation, which Groundwork Center received through a FOIA request.
“When was the Grand Traverse County Road Commission’s manager going to tell the public that the cost of the bridge project tripled in just nine months from July 2022 to March of this year?” asked Kelly Thayer, a project consultant working for Groundwork. “Even the board of road commissioners seemed unaware of the out-of-control costs before Groundwork started asking questions while researching the issue.”
The cost increase is the latest frustrating chapter in the bridge saga. Voters and state and federal regulators have rejected the bridge multiple times since the late 1980s, yet the road commission continues to resurrect the project without worthy justification.
Making the project far more expensive for locals, MDOT will not fund it, the lead project consultant said in a June commission meeting, because Hartman-Hammond would be a local project, and no longer the centerpiece of a once-planned state highway bypass,
In a public meeting, a board member estimated that federal funds might cover half the cost and suggested a $50-million local tax millage could cover the shortfall, but that was when the project was being publicly presented at $100 million. The soaring $280–$320 million expense will mean the cost to the local public will soar as well.
The road commission’s obsession with building the bridge defies its 2019 study, which found that “constructing a new corridor [i.e., the bridge and road] will provide traffic relief for a limited piece of the roadway network and does not provide relief for other corridors in the region that are experiencing congestion.” Reducing congestion was the study’s explicit goal. “Benefits similar to adding another crossing of the Boardman River can be achieved with a ‘mix of fixes’ applied throughout the network,” the study said. The fixes could be completed faster than the bridge, alleviate traffic congestion for more people, and save millions of taxpayer dollars.
The 2019 study cost $400,000 and recommended improving the congested and dangerously designed South Airport Road and the Beitner-Keystone corridor. The commission, however, rejected the study’s leading “mix of fixes” solution and instead spent an additional $2 million to study the bridge and voted unanimously in 2022 to build it.
The road commission has hemorrhaged $4.5 million since 2019 on bridge studies to justify its need. The spending nearly matches the total amount county voters approved in 2020 for local road repair over 4 years. The election drew organized opposition that alleged the road commission was wasting money on bridge studies instead of investing in road maintenance.
“At this point, the Grand Traverse County Board of Commissioners should take charge of the issue and direct the road commissioners, whom they appoint, to stop the wasteful spending on a Boardman River bridge that should never be built when you consider the astronomical cost and environmental damage and the lack of congestion relief for the region,” said John Nelson, a board member of the Northern Michigan Environmental Council and former Grand Traverse County road commissioner who served from 2011 to 2016.
A giant bridge over the river and a four-lane road carved through beautiful hilly countryside of forest, field and wetlands would desecrate the Boardman River Valley, which has recently undergone the largest dam removal project in Michigan history and largest-ever wetlands restoration in the Great Lakes region. The Boardman is a Michigan Natural River and Blue Ribbon trout stream and is prized for outdoor recreation.
Now the road commission wants to degrade the valley with an outrageously expensive, 100-foot-wide bridge carrying four lanes of noisy, polluting traffic. The impact would scar the landscape and spread sprawl. The bridge also would violate a goal of the commission’s study, which says, “The alternatives and actions should conserve the natural environment and enhance positive benefits for adjoining properties, neighborhoods, parks and businesses.”
The residents of the region and the river deserve better—better for the environment we cherish, better for the lifestyle we value, and far better for the stewardship of our families’ tax dollars.
About Groundwork: Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities creates sustainable solutions in local food, climate and clean energy, and livable, walkable towns. We were founded in 1995 under the name Michigan Land Use Institute. Learn more at groundworkcenter.org.
About NMEAC: The Northern Michigan Environmental Action Council (NMEAC) is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to preserving our natural environment through citizen action and education. Founded in 1980 we are the oldest grassroots environmental organization in the Grand Traverse region. NMEAC often defends our environment with our Legacy Fund. Learn about our organization and issues at nmeac.org.
Fact Sheet
Stop the $320 Million Hartman-Hammond Bridge, Fix the Roads, and
Protect the Boardman River Valley
Grand Traverse County can reduce traffic congestion and protect its prized places by pursuing a better, faster, cheaper “mix of fixes” on the county road network
The Grand Traverse County Road Commission is trying once again to build a highway bridge—now estimated to cost $320 million—through the Boardman River Valley south of Traverse City. It’s the latest chapter in a long-running saga of a bridge that the public and state and federal regulators have previously rejected. The Groundwork Center, in partnership with the Northern Michigan Environmental Action Council, urges the road commission to cancel the bridge and pursue the better, faster, cheaper “mix of fixes” on the county road network called for in its own taxpayer-funded study.
Groundwork and NMEAC support the findings of the Grand Traverse County Road Commission’s 2019 study on east-west traffic, which recommended placing a priority on improving congested and dangerously designed South Airport Road and the Beitner-Keystone corridor before the Hartman-Hammond bridge project is even considered. Taking a “fix-it-first” approach to the transportation system will unclog the many congested arteries across the road system, rather than focus on a single blockage in Garfield Township, and do so faster and at far less cost to taxpayers.
We remain deeply committed to stopping the proposed Hartman-Hammond bridge and protecting the beloved Boardman River Valley. Since our founding in 1995, Groundwork has built support for affordable transportation solutions that meet the mobility needs of all people and strengthen community character and local prosperity. The proposed road-and-bridge fails the test on all counts.
Hartman-Hammond …
- Risks $300 million on a massive bridge – A bridge connecting Hartman and Hammond roads would span 2,200 feet and cost about $320 million – likely making it the largest and most-expensive county-owned bridge in the United States, according to news reports. That’s in a county of fewer than 100,000 residents that ranks 646th in the nation in population. The soaring cost of the bridge is about equal to the asset value of the entire Grand Traverse County road system. It’s so expensive that the road commission recently voted in a rush – without reviewing a written contract first – to spend more than $250,000 on consultants just to help seek funding to build the bridge.
- Doesn’t relieve congestion – The road commission’s own 2019 study found that “constructing a new corridor will provide traffic relief for a limited piece of the roadway network and does not provide relief for other corridors in the Region that are experiencing congestion.” The study said that “benefits similar to adding another crossing of the Boardman River can be achieved with a ‘mix of fixes’ applied throughout the network” and could be completed faster, serve more of the county, and save millions of taxpayer dollars.
The study recommended placing a priority on improving congested and dangerously designed South Airport Road and the Beitner-Keystone corridor and said the Hartman-Hammond bridge project could be considered in the next decade, if justified at that time. The road commission, however, spent an additional $2 million studying the bridge and then voted unanimously to build it and rejected the “mix of fixes” recommended in the study they had funded.
- Wastes taxpayer money while other roads go unfixed – The road commission has spent more than $4.5 million since 2019 on studies to justify a new bridge. Those taxpayer dollars would be far better spent on road repair, with 10% of the 1,020-mile county road network currently in “poor” condition. That includes a segment of Bluff Road on the Old Mission Peninsula still closed after three years due to damage from erosion. It’s a replay of the road commission’s costly effort in the late 1990s and early 2000s to study and build the bridge. The Groundwork Center (then the Michigan Land Use Institute) and allies – including the Northern Michigan Environmental Action Council and the Sierra Club – even sued the road commission in 2002 to challenge the bridge project, which ultimately failed to gain state and federal environmental approval and the funding needed to build it.
- Pours heavy traffic into the Boardman River Valley – A giant bridge would desecrate the Boardman River Valley, which has recently undergone the largest dam removal project in Michigan history and the largest-ever wetlands restoration in the Great Lakes region. The project removed three dams and reconnected 160 miles of the river and its tributaries. The Boardman is a Michigan Natural River and Blue Ribbon trout stream, and its valley bursts with plant and animal life and is prized for fishing, hiking, paddling, and other outdoor recreation.
Now the Grand Traverse County Road Commission wants to fill the valley back up with a 100-foot-wide, concrete highway bridge carrying four lanes of noisy and polluting car and truck traffic. The impact would scar the landscape, and spread sprawl development. The bridge project also would violate a key goal of the road commission’s study, which says, “The alternatives and actions should conserve the natural environment and enhance positive benefits for adjoining properties, neighborhoods, parks and businesses.”
The residents of the region and the river deserve better.
Visit GroundworkCenter.org to learn more and join our campaign to:
- Stop the Hartman-Hammond bridge proposed by the Grand Traverse County Road Commission.
- Support a “mix of fixes applied throughout the network” of county roads as an affordable and effective traffic reduction alternative, which includes improvements to South Airport Road and other county roads.
- Permanently protect the Boardman River Valley where the massive bridge is proposed.
Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities creates sustainable solutions in local food, climate and clean energy, and livable, walkable towns. We were founded in 1995 under the name Michigan Land Use Institute. groundworkcenter.org 
Contacts:
Kelly Thayer, Project Consultant
231.944.3119, kellycthayer@gmail.com
Jeff Smith, Communications Director
231.499.5874, jeff.smith@groundworkcenter.org
Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities
Traverse City, MI groundworkcenter.org
John Nelson, Board Member
231.218.0890
Northern Michigan Environmental Action Council
Traverse City, MI nmeac.org
