Living in Bay City for 18 years, I developed a skill every Bay City resident must master – racing a freighter. As I’d approach one of the four bridges over the Saginaw River, my eyes would intuitively dart upriver and down looking for a ship’s bridge or, at night, a freighter’s spotlight cutting through the dark. It’s a split-second, high-stakes game – wait too long and you’re stalled on an approach as the gates go down and the drawbridge starts to rise. Result: Late for work, child left standing outside school, miss your doctor’s appointment. Played expertly, you spot the threat, veer off course and head for the next nearest crossing in this four-drawbridge town. The margin of success is metered in seconds, not minutes. Michigan has many lake-faring towns like Bay City, from Port Huron to Manistee, and hundreds of bridges in busy urban areas. Anyone who lives in these cities has river crossings embedded in their consciousness – practically and culturally. That’s why MLive has devoted a great deal of reporting effort into a project by Bay City Times reporter Caitlyn French that published this week on the town’s Liberty Bridge switching to a toll basis next year. French is highly qualified to write this story – she was born in Bay City, and one of the first stories she wrote for The Times was when the private company that is leasing Liberty Bridge, United Bridge Partners, pitched the toll plan to the city commission. “If there’s one thing that defines Bay City, it’s the bridges,” French said. “People in other towns make small talk about the weather. But in Bay City, we talk about bridges.” There hasn’t been a toll bridge in Bay City since 1886, and there are only two other toll bridges in Michigan that don’t end up in Canada – the Mackinac Bridge, and a small bridge to Grosse Ile in downriver Detroit. When a town’s lifeblood flows over bridges, this is a big deal. Liberty Bridge rates will range from $2 to $15.50 per crossing (or $15 a month for a passenger car). But French’s package shows that this story has more facets than cost. Part of the reason this has come to a head in Bay City is that infrastructure upkeep costs are mounting, and the effects of that hit hard in a town that has lost 34 percent of its population since 1970. There are political angles and there are traffic flow and congestion issues. There are financial considerations for not only residents, but township residents who work or socialize in town. “Infrastructure is very expensive to maintain,” she said. “I understand someone’s got to pay the bill at the end of the day. But I also wanted to know how people feel about this, especially considering sky-high inflation and as more people are struggling to make ends meet.” And then there are the fears that it will have negative effects on commerce or tourism. How would you feel about Bay City if you drove your RV downtown for the big fireworks show, and then got a bill in the mail for $15 after the toll bridge read your license plate? French highlights those concerns in interviews with residents and community leaders. These are the people who must navigate not only freighter traffic – more than 30 transits through downtown so far in December – but the aggravation of frequently malfunctioning bridges. “When they work, they’re great,” French said. “But when they don’t work – watch out. Traffic can be a nightmare and tempers can flare.” French’s reporting illustrates those annoyances pale compared to the some very fundamental questions facing Bay City. A town adept at evading freighters has found it can’t outrun the economics of maintaining the very passages that keep it connected. 🎧 Prefer to listen to your journalism while cooking or commuting? Try listening to John Hiner's Behind the Headlines podcast each week. Just click here for Spotify or here for Apple podcasts to listen. You can also find Behind the Headlines wherever you get your podcasts!
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John Hiner is the vice president of content for MLive Media Group. If you have questions you’d like him to answer, or topics to explore, share your thoughts at editor@mlive.com. | 