The Sterling Heights City Council on Tuesday night awarded a bid for replacement of the Lakeside Island Park bridge to a Wayne County construction firm for $1.7 million.

Brownstown Township-based M-K Construction Company was the recommended bidder for the project, which some envision as a future urban beach.

Lakeside Island Park is an 11-acre nature area near Lakeside Circle, the road that encircles the mostly-closed Lakeside Mall, and is surrounded by Lakeside Lake. The city owns the parkland, while the Macomb County Public Works Office is in charge of the water flowing into and out of Lakeside Lake.“We’re talking about simply putting in a pedestrian bridge as the current one is decades old, it’s exhausted and outlived its useful life,” said City Manager Mark Vanderpool.

The island is only accessible through a pedestrian bridge through an existing subdivision that links Island Drive to the park, a span of about 50 feet over Lakeside Lake, according to city officials. The bridge is in “very poor condition” and a portion has been closed off for safety reasons since 2016.

Maintenance of the park has been “severely limited” and public safety access has been “seriously compromised” city engineers said.

Funding will come from the approved American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Action Plan.

According to City Engineer Brent Bashaw, a committee made up of personnel from the parks department, office of engineering and consulting engineer, Hubbell, Roth & Clark, worked together to map out the scope of the project.

Plans call for removing the existing pedestrian bridge and replacing it with a large culvert crossing. The pathway will be reestablished over the top of the culvert. Fencing will be included over the waterway and into the approaches as well as bank stabilization at the water.

Also, the existing paved pathway from Island Drive to the crossing will be replaced, Bashaw said.

Councilman Michael Radtke in 2023 pushed for the bridge to be included in the $1 billion transformation plan to redevelop Lakeside Mall. But the council majority last year approved a resolution to establish the Lakeside Corridor Improvement Authority (CIA) and designate the boundaries of the developments without the island.

He said creating a Downtown Development Authority would allow the city more flexibility for using tax revenue to enhance Island Park, which is only accessible via a pedestrian bridge through an existing subdivision.

Radtke further said Sterling Heights has had money for the bridge included in the capital improvements list for the past five years. Each time, the council diverted money to other projects.

The council majority felt confident another way to pay for the park improvements would become available. And they were right, as the ARPA program will do the financing.

“We’re finally able to secure funding for this project,” Vanderpool said. “We’ll put in some bank stabilization efforts so the island doesn’t continue to erode, and we’ll be making some other structural and aesthetic improvements as well.”