The Wisconsin Department of Transportation will be shutting down the Michigan Street Bridge for four days to pedestrians and vehicular traffic next Monday. Jim McDowell says that they addressed the counterweights at the top of the span previously, but once the concrete begins to fail, it is a constant maintenance process. The repairs require temperatures above freezing, including overnight, making fall the last chance to address issues for a while. McDowell says the closure is mostly a precautionary one.

Marine traffic is prohibited between 7 AM and 4 PM each day, but the bridge will open to allow vessels to pass through in the evening and overnight hours. McDowell says the Michigan Street Bridge needs the most work out of the three in Sturgeon Bay due to the age and materials used to construct it. Rust requires constant vigilance, so cleaning is performed each spring to wash away road salt. For the rest of this year, work is still possible on the Maple-Oregon St. Bridge, but no contractor has been lined up yet.