Engineer gives update on washed out road

MICHIGAMME — Early Tuesday morning, a beaver dam collapsed, creating a head of water that was estimated to be 10 feet tall.

The water completely washed out Stagecoach Road in Michigamme. The Engineer and Manager of the Baraga County Road Commission Doug Mills said no one was injured in the collapse that left a road gap that is 35 feet wide and 25 feet deep.

“The beavers are a huge problem and this is kind of a catastrophic event,” said Mills. “We do try and control the beavers at the Road Commission, but it’s a continuous thing. This particular dam was an older dam that had been in place for a long, long time.”

The Road Commission has made arrangements for the 17 property owners on the other side of the washout to use a logging trail for transportation and have installed a temporary phone cable. There is no timeline for a more permanent solution as of right now, but the department is still gathering information.

“We’ve been talking in-house with the engineers as far as what we’re going to do to restore traffic on that road. Unfortunately, there’s no funding help available for such an event, you know, it’s not a FEMA event. There’s not insurance on our roads, so when anything like this happens, we’re on a reactionary basis trying to put the road back at least the way it was,” said Mills.

The area continues to remain blocked and the department is asking people to stay away from the area to avoid injury.