Portland road closure to begin July 13

PORTLAND – Motorists using Divine Highway in Portland must use an alternate route starting July 13.

Divine Highway will be closed at the intersection of Grand River Avenue for a period of up to three weeks. The detour route will use Grand River Avenue, Keefer Highway and David Highway.

ADM Alliance Nutrition has requested the closure in order to remove silos and other structures located on the west side of the intersection.

Portland city manager Tutt Gorman said the closure may not last as long as scheduled.

"ADM plans to be very aggressive with their schedule and will be trying to get the buildings down much sooner," said Gorman.

Gorman said a plan has been worked out with ADM so that emergency responders can quickly respond to addresses on Divine Highway.

He added that keeping one lane open was not feasible.

"Our engineers and ADM's engineers looked at every possible traffic contingency and did everything possible to try to mitigate the traffic issue. However, we could not keep one lane open to traffic because that is such a confined space there would be safety issues," said Gorman.

Gorman noted that ADM had agreed to delay the project twice, once until after the school year had ended, and again until after Independence Day.

"They have been waiting a long time to get this done," said Gorman.

Once the structures have been removed, ADM plans to give the parcel to the city. Gorman said the city has completed a Phase I environmental study of the parcel, but has not made any decisions.

"We want to get the silos and buildings down first and then have some discussions regarding that property," said Gorman.