Bridge to Bay Trail grants pay for repairs in Port Huron, Marine City and three St. Clair County townships

PORT HURON, Mich. — Five St. Clair County communities will use grant money to repair aging stretches of the Bridge to Bay Trail, including a full rebuild of about 3.25 miles of path along M-29 in East China Township, the Community Foundation of St. Clair County said Tuesday, Oct. 13.

The money comes from the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Trails Maintenance Fund at the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan. The fund pays to repair and renovate trails that are already built, not to extend them, according to the St. Clair County foundation’s announcement.

Port Huron, Cottrellville Township, St. Clair Township and Marine City applied together, with the county foundation serving as fiduciary. Their four projects add up to about $139,800, and they asked for $127,800. East China Township applied on its own. The foundation said both applications were funded. Its announcement did not list the amounts awarded.

Cottrellville Township Supervisor Greg Abbey said the joint request helped. “Having our trail maintenance project included in a larger regional application strengthened our request and helped avoid competition among neighboring communities for limited funding,” he said in the announcement.

Here is the work, as the foundation described it:

Port Huron: About $42,800 at the Blue Water River Walk for new trail signs, repainted or powder-coated benches, and repairs to decking and railing lights at the north ferry dock.

Cottrellville Township: About $57,000 to repair and resurface 2,604 feet of cracked trail flagged in the county’s pavement evaluation for trails.

Marine City: About $30,000 to repair and resurface damaged asphalt sections, also flagged in that review.

St. Clair Township: About $8,000 to replace a faulty drain and fix a damaged 40-foot stretch of asphalt.

Those four jobs are expected to be finished within the next year, the foundation said.

East China Township: The 8-foot-wide asphalt path beside M-29 between Recor and Bree roads has been patched many times and is in very poor condition, the foundation said. Tearing it out and replacing it is estimated at $670,000. The township asked the fund for $200,000. Former Supervisor Verne Westrick said the rebuild, together with a planned crosswalk at Riverside Avenue and Bree Road, would complete the township’s trail network and tie it into trails in the city of St. Clair.

The trail now runs more than 50 miles through the county, and some of its earliest sections are close to 20 years old. Thirteen municipalities own and maintain the pieces inside their borders, the foundation said.

The push to close the gaps got a lift in 2019, when the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation committed more than $1 million through the county foundation and a Regional Trails Board was set up to work with local governments. Finishing roughly 25 more miles was estimated then at $12 million over 10 years. Sheri Faust, who chairs the board and leads Friends of the St. Clair River, said both the cost and the timeline have grown. “Even though they might be small segments left to build, they are mighty and costly,” she said.

The finished route is planned to run from Lakeport State Park south to Algonac State Park and, eventually, to the Macomb County line.

Sources:
Community Foundation of St. Clair County, “From building the Bridge to Bay Trail to maintaining it,” Oct. 13, 2026, https://stclairfoundation.org/from-building-the-bridge-to-bay-trail-to-maintaining-it/
Photo: Peter K., “Blue Water Bridge and Bridge to Bay Trail - panoramio.jpg,” May 15, 2014, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/), cropped and color-adjusted; derivative under the same ShareAlike license, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blue_Water_Bridge_and_Bridge_to_Bay_Trail_-_panoramio.jpg

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