Petoskey hears $19.8 million plan to stabilize Miracle Mile trail; council and residents press funding, logistics questions

Rory, the project presenter, told the Petoskey City Council that engineers advanced the Miracle Mile portion of the Little Traverse Wheelway to a 100% design and developed bid documents and a basis-of-design report that are available on the city website. He described a preferred dynamic revetment — a 4–8 inch cobble beach with a roughly 30‑foot crest and a 6:1 slope — combined with regrading, soil‑nailing and a small bridge where the trail previously washed out.

The design is intended both to reestablish the trail and to protect nearby infrastructure, including Highway 31 and utilities. "The cost estimate that we developed... is currently at 19,800,000.0, so just right around 20,000,000," Rory said, noting about $13 million of that total is the shoreline protection work and that the plan assumes roughly 90,000 tons of stone. He said permitting materials and applications are prepared but on hold pending funding.

Why it matters: the Miracle Mile is a high‑use segment of the regional trail and a visible coastal bluff that has experienced both a large coastal bluff collapse and recurring, shallower sloughing since 2020. Council members and residents framed the conversation around two priorities: public safety (stabilizing the bluff and protecting the highway) and affordability — whether the city should pursue the full design or a value‑engineered alternative.

Council questions and engineering responses focused on climate risk, design return periods and constructability. In response to Council member Shields’ question about whether the team should plan for more extreme future conditions, Rory said the design uses a combined 100‑year lake level with surge (roughly a design water level near 5.845) plus a 25‑year wave condition; combining those parameters provides a conservative load case for the structure. He also described how the team used coastal numerical models and slope‑stability analyses to size the revetment and to test scenarios in which groundwater or toe erosion could drive failure.

Residents and trail advocates urged the council to keep moving. Brent Bolen of the Top Michigan Trails Council said private donors and grant programs could play a role and argued the trail is an economic driver: "there's about a 116,000 users every year on the trail, generates $10,000,000 of economic activity," he said. Other speakers warned of the risk to Highway 31 if stabilizing work is delayed.

Council members pushed on logistics and costs: Rory estimated moving quarried stone to the site and placing it will require many months of material transport — the project could generate thousands of truck trips — and that full construction in a single season would be challenging. For timeline, he said permitting could take 6–12 months and construction preparation and mobilization another 12–24 months, with an overall realistic schedule of roughly two years from secured funding to major construction activity.

On maintenance, the design team recommended a monitoring program for the dynamic revetment: the report describes marking representative cobbles every ~400 feet and recording GPS positions at 12‑month intervals to measure movement, though Rory said drone surveys could provide effective, lower‑cost monitoring. He emphasized the structure is intentionally “dynamic” and that ongoing observation is important to adapt maintenance actions.

What’s next: staff said the city will discuss funding and next steps at an upcoming council meeting; permits remain to be submitted and property agreements or letters of approval will be necessary where the design extends beyond the current trail easement. The presentation and full design report are available on the city’s project page for residents and stakeholders to review.