Berrien County Road Department will begin work on the Beaver Dam Road in Gailen Township starting Monday.

The road department will be closing Beaver Dam Road on October 21 to facilitate a culvert replacement to the Zaring and Russ Drain. Road department spokesperson Adri Boone tells us what the project will entail. 

“There’s a couple of stages. So the first stage, of course, is going to be getting the new tube installed in the ground. And the second stage of the project will be to get that resurfaced to a hard asphalt pavement. So the ultimate goal is replacing that existing culvert, which will help as far as the lifespan of the drain there that it services, but also for the road itself.”

Culvert replacement is anticipated to be complete before the end of the year, and will pick back up in 2025 when weather allows.

“[It] could be around six weeks that you’ll see that road closure in place, but once it is installed as far as the culvert, we will reopen the road with the surface as gravel and then in the spring or summertime, we will then get the contractor back out there to asphalt or pave over where the culvert was installed.”

Beaver Dam Road will be closed to thru traffic at the Zaring and Russ Drain. The closure will stay in place until the culvert installation has been completed.

The recommended detour route will be Olive Branch Road to Pardee Road to Buffalo Road.