On Saturday, the half-hour clock stops running Bridge Street. That clock comes from a federal regulation that applies only from April through October. The pedestrian plan MDOT has scheduled for spring 2027 was drawn up largely around what that clock does to downtown traffic. That makes the coming months the last stretch of winter with downtown Charlevoix's current crossing layout. When boats return next spring, the bridge clock returns with them, but most of the places you cross US-31 will be different.
The rule behind the half-hour
The US-31 bascule bridge over the Pine River channel runs under 33 CFR § 117.641, a Coast Guard drawbridge regulation. MDOT's own explanation is plain about it. The opening schedule for the bridge, which opened in 1949, "is actually set by the U.S. Coast Guard, not by MDOT," because federal law gives marine traffic the right of way on most navigable waterways.
From 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., April 1 through October 31, the rule says the draw "need open only from three minutes before to three minutes after the hour and half-hour for recreational vessels." Those six-minute windows are why a drive across town in July can feel timed. Outside those hours and dates the schedule doesn't apply. Here is how the rest of the year breaks down:
- April 1 to October 31, 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Recreational boats pass in the windows around the hour and the half-hour.
- April 1 to December 31, all other hours. The draw opens on signal.
- January 1 to March 31. The draw opens on signal if a vessel gives at least 12 hours' advance notice before its intended passage.
In the same April-through-December provision, the rule says public vessels of the United States, state or local public-safety vessels, commercial vessels, vessels in distress and vessels seeking shelter from severe weather "shall be passed through the draw as soon as possible."
So from November 1 through New Year's Eve there are no scheduled openings at all. The bridge opens when a boat asks, and late in the season far fewer boats are asking. After January 1, a boater has to give notice half a day ahead. That's the reverse of summer. In July you can set a watch by the bridge. In November there's nothing to time.
Why the schedule only runs in summer
The current wording dates to a rule the Coast Guard published in the Federal Register on March 22, 2000. Under the old rule, recreational openings were limited to the hour and half-hour windows from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. all year. Since 1991, MDOT had arranged voluntary extensions of those windows to 10 p.m., along with a January-through-March winter schedule that required 12 hours' notice.
The 2000 rule made those arrangements official and tied the schedule to the season. According to the Coast Guard, MDOT asked for the change to cut vehicle delays during Charlevoix's peak tourist months while still meeting reasonable navigation needs. The Coast Guard also noted that winter opening requests were relatively few. The rule took effect June 20, 2000.
For more than 25 years, then, the summer schedule has been a compromise between boats and cars, and it covers only the months when both are busy. In those same months, MDOT heard the most complaints about downtown crossings, and those complaints shaped the 2027 plan.
What MDOT heard about the half-hour
MDOT's project FAQ explains how the plan was built. The agency gathered traffic counts, measured delay, watched how drivers and pedestrians behaved, reviewed crash reports and commissioned a 2021 downtown study that collected input from both drivers and pedestrians. Nearly 400 people answered a follow-up survey before it closed on January 1, 2026.
MDOT says the survey comments kept returning to a few themes:
- Poor visibility, especially at the Van Pelt Alley crossing
- Delays from the half-hourly bridge openings
- Pedestrians crossing where drivers don't expect them
- Inattentive or aggressive drivers
MDOT reports that the vast majority of respondents felt those concerns had gotten worse. Some tied the change to more boat traffic and bridge openings, and some said the backups put pedestrians at risk. When the bridge goes up, traffic backs up through downtown. Drivers then watch the bridge instead of the crosswalks, and pedestrians step out between stopped cars. The FAQ describes the risk directly. Crossings hidden by parked vehicles and unexpected stops can cause crashes, rear-end collisions, frustration and delay, while signalized crossings make it clear where and when people should cross.
The crash numbers set against 2018
MDOT has already reworked this corridor once. In 2018, with support from the Charlevoix City Commission, US-31 was converted from four lanes to three from M-66 to Hurlbut Street, and from the bascule bridge north to Mercer Boulevard. In the three years before that change, the corridor had 173 crashes, six of them with severe injuries. In the three years after, it had 64 crashes and three with severe injuries. MDOT counted 51 crashes from 2022 through 2024.
In 2022, MDOT also changed the signals at both ends of the bridge to flash amber instead of showing steady green when the bridge is open to cars. Even so, MDOT's project page says "some of the overarching issues and concerns remain." The 2027 plan goes after the problems the lane conversion left behind: where people cross, and how often traffic gets a predictable chance to move.
Crossing by crossing, what changes in 2027
MDOT calls the plan comprehensive and says the changes must be built together, because their benefits depend on one another and "won't work as well, or possibly at all," if they're done piecemeal.
| Location | Planned change |
|---|---|
| Van Pelt Alley | Unsignalized mid-block crossing closes and moves to the north side of Clinton Street |
| Clinton Street | Relocated north-side crossing, a curb bump-out and one-way eastbound traffic |
| Mason Street | New traffic signal with pedestrian signals, a curb bump-out and one-way westbound traffic |
| Park Avenue | New traffic signal with a curb bump-out; the crosswalk on the south side of the bascule bridge moves here |
| Antrim Street | New traffic signal with a pedestrian crossing signal |
| North side of the bridge | Better pedestrian crossing options, details not yet specified |
MDOT says the bump-outs at Mason, Clinton and Park will make pedestrians more visible and shorten the distance they have to cross. The Van Pelt Alley crossing, the one survey respondents singled out for poor visibility, is the one that goes away. People who cross there now will be sent a short distance to Clinton Street. Drivers using the side streets will notice the one-way changes on Mason and Clinton every day.
At a March 4, 2026 open house, MDOT Communications Representative James Lake described the goal to UpNorthLive: "We're looking to introduce new traffic signals at three locations downtown to give people a safe and convenient place to cross, removing some of the unsignalized crossings, and coordinating those movements so that we get improved traffic flow and improved safety." According to that report, Lake said construction is expected to begin in spring 2027.
What's set and what isn't
MDOT's project page lists the schedule as "Spring 2027" and the cost as $2 million. The page doesn't give a construction duration, a staging sequence or a detour plan. It also doesn't explain how the new signals at Antrim, Mason and Park will be timed around bridge openings. MDOT says the signals should give drivers "regular and predictable opportunities" to proceed and give pedestrians safe crossings nearby, so they don't need to cross mid-block. For daily lane closures once work begins, the project page points to MDOT's Mi Drive map.
The calendar looks like this. The half-hour windows end Saturday night. From November 1 the bridge opens on signal, and starting January 1 boaters need to give 12 hours' notice. The bridge returns to the clock on April 1, 2027, the same spring MDOT has set for construction. Downtown's current crossings, including the Van Pelt Alley crosswalk and the crosswalk on the south side of the bascule bridge, have one more winter in their current form.
We've summarized a federal regulation here for general information. Boaters planning a passage should confirm requirements with the Coast Guard or the bridge operator, because this post isn't legal advice.
At The Crane Group, we keep track of how changes like these affect getting around downtown Charlevoix, from the bridge schedule to which side streets turn one-way. If you'd like to talk about how the 2027 crossing changes could affect a home near Bridge Street, Schedule a Free Consultation and we'll go through it with you.
