Lift Bridge Replacement Test Saturday

What will happen if the Houghton-Hancock Bridge fails? We’ll get a sneak peek tomorrow. Members of the 1437th Company of the Army National Guard will practice setting up sections of the temporary floating bridge that would be deployed if the Lift Bridge is disabled. They’ll deploy the bridge sections at the Dollar Bay Coast Guard station beginning at 7:00. The sections will be pinned together to make a raft, and then floated to the Isle Royale National Park launch in Houghton. From there, emergency vehicles will be loaded onto the raft, and ferried to the Houghton County Marina on the other side. Various types of vehicles will be shuttled back and forth across the Portage until early afternoon. If the bridge were to fail, sections such as these would be used to establish a full-length replacement bridge across the Portage. Houghton County Emergency Coordinator Jack Dueweke emphasizes that this is only a test. Traffic across the Lift Bridge will not be disrupted. The Houghton-Hancock Bridge is the only connection across the Portage Canal between the mainland, and the northern portion of the Keweenaw Peninsula.