Avon Road Bridge To Reopen, Livernois Bridge To Close

ROCHESTER HILLS (WWJ) -  It's good news for motorists who have been dealing with the Avon Road bridge closure in Rochester Hills: It's expected to re-open to traffic by the end of the week. But with it comes the closure of the Livernois Road bridge at the other end of the corner of Avon on July 9 -- all the way through mid-November.

Both bridges are nearly 50 years old.

Dennis Kolar of the Road Commission of Oakland County said putting off either bridge repair project was not an option, given their  condition.

"These bridges were rapidly deteriorating," said Kolar. "They wouldn't have waited that long. We would've been closing these bridges before we would've had a chance to reconstruct them."

Rochester Hills Mayor Bryan Barnett agreed.

"They (the bridges) were being more and more constricted, traffic was backing up even further, and we recognized we needed to do something," said Barnett.

State and federal, along with help with shared costs between Rochester and Rochester Hills allowed bridge work to take place this year.

For the latest from the roads, keep it tuned to WWJ Newsradio 950 for traffic and weather, every 10 minutes on the 8s.  To check the traffic maps now, visit this link.