The Grandview Parkway in Michigan runs between Traverse City and Elmwood Township. The parkway is located in northern Michigan, just off the West Arm Grand Traverse Bay, which feeds into Lake Michigan. The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and general contractor, Team Elmer’s, are updating a section of the road as part of the Grandview Parkway 2.0 project.
The Grandview Parkway was initially constructed in the late 1960s and early 1970s and has been updated in various ways, from concrete joint repairs to wear course overlays. In 2021, the average daily traffic was 30,000 vehicles of mixed traffic flow — cars, trucks, commercial, emergency, and public transportation vehicles, including heavy commercial vehicles.
The 2.2-mile section of the parkway that is under construction is deteriorating rapidly. The current roadway, a combination of hot mix asphalt, concrete pavement, and composite pavement (asphalt over concrete), is nearing the end of its expected lifespan. The existing pavement is heavily potholed and cracked, leading to poor ride quality.
This stretch of roadway was also in need of improvements to its underground infrastructure.
Crews have performed a significant amount of work on the surrounding corridor over the past decade, according to Tonya Wildfong, Team Elmer's Communications Director.
| Your local Trimble Construction Division dealer |
|---|
| SITECH Michigan |
The projects have focused on the transition of Traverse City Light & Power’s coal dock storage area to Discovery Center Pier, the expansion of Elmwood Marina, and the improvements to Elmwood Park, including the addition of play structures, bathrooms, and a picnic pavilion.
The projects have made the area a more attractive destination and increased traffic counts in the area.
Although the Grandview Parkway is not being widened, the team is adding landscaped medians along the parkway as part of its beautification efforts.
Team Elmer’s Project Manager Sean Sebela said that the project also includes:
| Your local Deere & Co dealer |
|---|
| AIS Construction Equipment |
- Removal of an intersection and installation of a new roundabout at the M-22/M-72 intersection. This is a commercial area along the bayfront.
- Extension of the Tart Trail for bicycle use from M-72 to Cherry Bend Road to connect eventually to the existing Tart Trail just west of M-22 at Cherry Bend Road.
- Construction of four Bay Area Transportation Authority bus pull outs/stops for increased public transportation throughout the M-22 corridor between the M-22/M-72 intersection and Cherry Bend Road.
- Construction of three HAWK signals for safe pedestrian crossings, with two new installations and upgrades to the third. A HAWK signal is a high-intensity activated crosswalk. This type of crossing is commonly used when there is no signalized road intersection for safe pedestrian access, all while minimizing delays to vehicular traffic. There will be a HAWK for east/west crossing at Elmwood Road, another just west of the M-22/M-72 intersection for north/south crossing, and another just north of the M-22/M-72 intersection for east/west crossing to connect the newly constructed bay side Tart Trail to the existing Tart Trail that runs north into Leelanau County.
- Construction of two east/west safe harbor pedestrian islands, one just south of Carter Road and the other at the Discovery Center Pier. These are unsignalized crossings with a curbed median that allows pedestrians to cross half-width through both bounds of traffic to provide a safe refuge island when waiting in the center turn lane.
- Underground drainage infrastructure improvements, sidewalk installation for increased connectivity, asphalt installation, and additional pedestrian crossing assistance at multiple locations.
Before construction, the M-72/M-22 intersection was a signalized three-way junction that had been a victim of long traffic backups, particularly during peak traffic hours.
“The newly constructed roundabout [RAB] is being added to increase traffic flow at the increasingly busy M-22/M-72 intersection,” Sebela said. “They have a good track record of improving traffic flow through an intersection while also decreasing the number of bad accidents by decreasing speeds into the RAB.”
As noted above, the Grandview Parkway is near the bay, so it comes as no surprise that there is a high water table in the area. Around the roundabout, groundwater levels were 6 to 7 feet deep. Farther north, levels averaged between 5 and 8 feet.
| Your local Trimble Construction Division dealer |
|---|
| SITECH Michigan |
“To manage this, we implemented a combination of strategic stone bedding and aggressive dewatering,” Sebela said. “Our crews typically avoided full dewatering systems where possible, but in areas such as box culvert installations, we had to set up systems with 20 to 30 well points to effectively lower the groundwater. In these situations, controlling the water meant controlling the job — allowing for safe, stable installation conditions.”
Sebela noted that the most significant water table challenge of the entire project was the installation of a 5-foot by 12-foot box culvert, which replaced an aging 36-inch culvert pipe. The box culvert and end sections — the heaviest being 52,000-pound end sections with headwalls — required a lift from a Liebherr LTM 1160-5.2, a 190-ton all-terrain hydraulic crane.
The box culvert was installed in a high water table zone with poor soils and an active stream. Sebela explained the multifaceted approach the team took to install the box culvert:
- A sheet piling cofferdam was constructed to isolate the work area, stabilize the surrounding poor soils, and prevent both groundwater and surface flow from entering the work area.
- A temporary creek bypass system was implemented to maintain continuous stream flow during construction, which proceeded in phases.
- To reduce risk to the completed structure, the cofferdam was designed to remain in place after construction, avoiding vibrations from removal that could have compromised the integrity of the new culvert.
| Your local Trimble Construction Division dealer |
|---|
| SITECH Michigan |
There were multiple heavy rain events, including two storms exceeding 3 inches of accumulation. The cofferdam held successfully. The team installed additional dewatering pumps to manage increased water volume during the rain events.
The team placed several large, deep stormwater structures. Sebela said the largest catch basin installed was 132 inches (11 feet) in diameter and 11 feet deep. The shape and weight required a 75-ton Link-Belt HTC-8675 Hydraulic Truck Crane to assist with placement of the structure.
The deepest structure was a hydrodynamic stormwater separator installed at a depth of 14.5 feet, placed without requiring dewatering. Hydrodynamic storm separators are structures typically placed last in line before stormwater is discharged into the environment, removing oil and debris from the water so any discharge is cleaner and safer for the environment.
Across the 2.32-mile site, over 297 structures were installed — 50 percent of which were typical 4 feet diameter structures. The other structures varied in diameter from 5 feet to 11 feet. The largest of these structures required coordination from the crane and rigging department to offload the truck and place it directly into the excavated space due to the large size of the structure. When space is critical, a structure as large as a traffic lane demands attention to detail.
| Your local Trimble Construction Division dealer |
|---|
| SITECH Michigan |
“These installations demanded precise coordination and sequencing to safely handle excavation, shoring, lifting, and backfill operations — especially in saturated soils and high-traffic areas,” Sebela said.
Another challenge included maintaining traffic while ensuring crew safety. Meeting the challenge while installing the deep storm sewer was difficult, as there was minimal buffer space between active work zones and moving vehicles.
“To ensure safety, we proactively collaborated with MDOT early in the project and proposed the use of ZoneGuard temporary steel barriers,” Sebela said. “These barriers provided comparable protection to concrete options but were quicker and less expensive to install and remove, saving both time and money without compromising safety.”
The team also constructed temporary road widenings in constrained areas to improve work zone separation and protect both the traveling public and crews. Sebela noted that the team installed temporary barriers at 10 key locations, particularly where storm sewer crossings featured drop-offs up to 9 to 10 feet immediately adjacent to traffic.
| Your local Trimble Construction Division dealer |
|---|
| SITECH Michigan |
A third challenge involved working in proximity to critical utility infrastructure. Several high-pressure gas mains run the full length of the corridor.
“In multiple instances, we had to redesign storm sewer to avoid conflicts,” Sebela said. “This required real-time collaboration with DTE [Energy], whose crews worked alongside ours to ensure utility integrity was preserved throughout. Despite the challenge, this partnership was a key success factor in keeping the project on schedule and safe.”
Team Elmer's is headquartered in Traverse City and has worked with MDOT on multiple occasions. So, they were naturally interested in a project that involved a crucial part of the local infrastructure. However, other reasons also drew them.
“The Parkway project was a perfect alignment with our ability to self-perform much of the work while also supplying products made in house, including drainage structures, aggregate base, and hot mix asphalt to name a few,” Sebela said.
| Your local Trimble Construction Division dealer |
|---|
| SITECH Michigan |
The federal and state government are funding the nearly $26 million project. The project is on budget.
Construction on the project began in March 2025 and is scheduled to be completed in September 2027, but it is on track to open to traffic in November 2025.
“MDOT slated this project schedule as ‘expedited,’ meaning we are allowed and expected to complete on time even if that means working weekends or around the clock,” Sebela said.
Sebela credited the team’s hard work for keeping the project on schedule.
| Your local Trimble Construction Division dealer |
|---|
| SITECH Michigan |
Drivers, commuters, and pedestrians will enjoy many benefits when the Grandview Parkway 2.0 project is completed. These include:
- Upgraded storm sewer infrastructure
- Improved traffic flow
- New sidewalks and Tart Trail
- Four new bus shelters/pullouts
- Four new pedestrian crossings for safe access when crossing M-22 or M-72
- Beautification of this corridor
- Resurfaced roadway
- Owner: Michigan Department of Transportation
- General Contractor: Team Elmer’s, Traverse City, Michigan
- Designer: Three i Design, Evansville, Indiana; Rowe Engineering, Flint, Michigan
- Engineer: Michigan Department of Transportation Traverse City Transportation Service Center
- Other Key Contractors: Antigo Construction, Inc., Antigo, Wisconsin; Machin Engineering, Traverse City, Michigan; G&J Site Solutions, Inc., Calumet, Michigan; Diamond Concrete Sawing, Grand Rapids, Michigan; Diane Dukes, Inc., Big Rapids, Michigan; Shelly Bigelow Trucking, Manton, Michigan; PK Contracting, LLC, Troy, Michigan; Todd’s Welding Service, Kalkaska, Michigan; ETNA Supply, Grand Rapids, Michigan; NCP, Grand Rapids, Michigan
