A large hole in a US-131 bridge over West River Drive in Comstock Park is not being fixed yet. The Michigan Department of Transportation postponed the repair to avoid disrupting traffic during a West Michigan Whitecaps five-game homestand.

The spall, a technical term for a pothole on a bridge deck, appeared last week on the northbound lanes of the highway. Daylight is visible through a metal cover MDOT installed over the damage. A pile of concrete and rubble fell to the ground beneath the bridge, landing near the Fred Meijer White Pine Trail.

A walker spots the damage

A man walking the trail told WOODTV 8 he was "astonished" to look up and see the hole in the bridge deck.

"As I walked under the bridge, I thought, is there a light on? And as I looked up, I thought, 'No, that's not a bridge light. That's a bloody hole in the tarmac,'" Russell, a metro Grand Rapids resident originally from the United Kingdom, said. "There's actually a hole in the road. I was like, 'Do they know that?'"

MDOT knows. The agency had already scheduled maintenance for that stretch of highway and is accelerating the work. But it is not happening this week.

Whitecaps homestand delays the fix

The plan was for a double-lane closure to begin Monday so crews could repair the hole. MDOT pushed the work back because the Whitecaps play a five-game homestand against the Dayton Dragons from June 2 to June 7. The agency wants to ease traffic while fans travel to LMCU Ballpark.

The Whitecaps are off June 8 and then play on the road through June 14. Construction is expected to begin when the team returns from that road trip.

The Whitecaps issued a travel alert Monday, advising fans to arrive earlier than usual to avoid slowdowns. Traffic delays on Monday already spilled back onto I-96, according to WZZM13.

What MDOT says about the timeline

MDOT spokesman John Richard confirmed in March that the US-131 bridges over West River Drive were on the docket for full deck replacement. He told WZZM13 Monday that the northbound section was originally scheduled for work this fall. The spall means the repair needs to happen "ASAP."

The dedicated lane for the West River exit is closed, though the exit ramp itself remains open. MDOT has placed cones at the site in preparation for the work.

MDOT reported that roughly 63,000 vehicles travel that section of US-131 each day. The northbound bridge deck is scheduled for full replacement next year, and the southbound deck in 2028.

The repair window is narrow. Fans heading to the ballpark and commuters sharing the same stretch of highway will need to plan for delays until crews can get to work.