Talking Michigan Transportation · Michigan Department of Transportation

Why falling ice leads to closing the Mackinac Bridge

March 26, 2026·28 min·1 clip

Matt Chenoweth says the George Washington Bridge crew has used a baseball bat to knock ice off cables.

1. Talking Michigan Transportation revisits falling ice on the Mackinac Bridge, a problem Jeff Cranston says he first covered four years ago. 2. Jeff Cranston interviews Joe Champagne, whom he identifies as the Mackinac Bridge Authority's head of maintenance, and Matt Chenoweth, the former chief bridge engineer at MDOT who now leads bridge practice at RS&H. 3. The episode asks why the Mackinac Bridge still closes for ice and which mitigation ideas are realistic for a 100% steel suspension bridge. 4. Champagne says friends and family keep texting, "When's it going to open?" and he has no "magic number" because "it's all up to mother nature." 5. He says some ice has sat on the bridge for "over a week" until a brief warm spell and sunshine finally loosen it. 6. When temperatures rise from 32 to 36 and then 37 or 38 degrees, Champagne says the ice can start falling "like nobody's business." 7. He and his crew watch from center span with binoculars because the cables are low there and they can see both directions. 8. Champagne says falling ice hit the roof of his truck and ended up in the side of the box, which convinced him a windshield strike would have shattered the glass. 9. He rejects the idea that a different paint alone would solve the problem, and he says the bridge team also hears suggestions about heat tape and other add-ons. 10. His practical rule is blunt: closing the bridge is the easy part, but reopening it is harder because traffic vibration can shake more ice loose. 11. The maintenance staff leaves lane closures in place on the north and south ends so crews can slow traffic and turn vehicles around quickly when ice starts to fall. 12. Champagne says the crew has even used sand trucks to shake remaining ice off the bridge when weather conditions allow. 13. Cranston and Champagne emphasize that the workers at the north and south ends take the brunt of the public frustration, including repeated questions about when the bridge will reopen. 14. Chenoweth says the George Washington Bridge in New York has dealt with ice by sending someone up in a man lift and beating hanger cables with a baseball bat. 15. He says the Great Belt Bridge in Denmark closes about 12 times a year for ice accretion and ice falling, even after studies of active and passive solutions. 16. Chenoweth groups the mitigation options into mechanical removal, thermal removal, and passive systems, then explains why each one is expensive or difficult to retrofit. 17. He notes that the Mackinac Bridge's towers, main cables, and hangers all collect ice, which makes one fix harder than on a cable-stayed bridge. 18. He says any system using heat or current has to be weighed against stray-current corrosion risk on a bridge made entirely of steel. 19. Cranston keeps the tone calm and technical, and Chenoweth answers in a measured, engineering-heavy interview style while also touching on the Line 5 tunnel work. 20. Bridge engineers, Michigan commuters, and suspension-bridge fans will get the most from it, while casual listeners looking for a lighter transportation story may skip it.

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