The city of New Buffalo is receiving a $1 million grant from the state to build a pedestrian bridge over the Galien River to help people access the beach.
City Manager Darwin Watson tells us when the Michigan Economic Development Corporation was seeking applications for its Revitalization and Placemaking Program, the city already had a project ready to go.
Watson says the pedestrian traffic to the beach right now can become a problem when it’s busy.
“Currently, what happens is when you go to the beach or want to access the beach area in New Buffalo, there’s one way into it, and that’s Whittaker Street,” Watson said. “But when you go down Whittaker Street in the summertime, you have motorized traffic in the road and you also have pedestrian traffic which travels on the side of the road just adjacent to it.”
Watson says while there haven’t been any incidents, the traffic conditions for pedestrians walking over the North Whittaker Street bridge can become a problem. So, the pedestrian bridge is going to be built right next to it.
It will be similar to the pedestrian bridge connecting Benton Harbor and St. Joseph.
The $1 million state grant is a matching grant, so the bridge’s total cost will be $2 million. Watson says they hope to start construction in the spring and be finished by late summer.
