BUFFALO, N.Y. — The City of Buffalo is closing the Michigan Avenue bridge for four months.
According to a letter from the city sent to nearby businesses, the bridge will undergo "rehabilitation of the concrete abutments, replacement of the timber fenders and repairs to the timber dolphins."
During the closure, there will be no car or foot traffic, but the lift span will be raised to the fully open position so boat traffic will be able to continue.
The city says a detour route will be from South Park Avenue to Louisiana Street, over the Ohio Street lift bridge to Ganson Street.
Several Ganson Street businesses aren't happy with the short notice from the city and that the closure will happen during their busiest season.
Bill Casale, CEO of Buffalo Riverworks says "After years worth of planning events cross-bridge events, with obviously the importance of connectivity between us and everything that's going on in the city of Buffalo, Canalside, Riverfest Park, it really is a major blow for us economically. And it's a bigger blow I think for our staff that rely on public transit."
Casale says about 50% of his staff take the bus or another form of public transit to get to work and without the bridge, employees will have to walk a mile to get to Riverworks.
The bridge was originally scheduled to be be closed to pedestrian and vehicular traffic on Thursday, but that has been delayed until Tuesday, May 30, starting at 8:00 a.m.