MARQUETTE, MI-- Various Marquette County entities gathered for a work session Monday morning to discuss how they intend to handle an influx of trucks in the area.
Marquette mayor pro-tem Robert Niemi says officials from the City of Marquette, the County Board, the County Road Commission and Negaunee and Marquette Townships met to talk about truck routes on Wright Street and US-41, since an alternate route was not approved.
“The instant concern I guess would be the trucks from Rio Tinto,” he says, “which, once they’re in full production, will be adding to the traffic on that corridor. And with the demise of County Road 595 it looks like the trucks will be using the existing road.”
Niemi says the group also discussed other potential bypass routes, but the biggest roadblock is financing.
“If you were to look at a bypass road that would enter 41 West in Western Marquette Township then we run into permitting issues and crossings for the Dead River,” he says.
Niemi says officials are especially concerned about the intersection of Wright Street and Sugarloaf Avenue, which already sees about 18,000 vehicles a day. US-41 has an average daily traffic volume of between 34,000 and 36,000 vehicles.
The meeting was a work session, so no action will be taken.
