Bay City Manager Dana Muscott. (Photo courtesy City of Bay City)

Bay City motorists will apparently have one less headache next year. The Michigan Department of Transportation has put plans to replace the Lafayette Bridge on hold.

Bay City Manager Dana Muscott says the city will wait for M-DOT’s next move. Muscott said the delay by the state will not affect Bay City’s sale of the city owned Liberty and Independence Bridges to United Bridge Partners for $5 million. The company plans to do a major maintenance overhaul to the downtown Liberty span and replace the Independence Bridge, connecting Trumbull Street with the Truman Parkway. It would recover those costs by charging a toll to cross the bridges.

The cost of the state’s plan to build a new span over the Saginaw River in Bay City’s south end has nearly doubled. The projected cost of the two year project was $45.5 million. A full replacement of the M 13, M 84 bridge now has a potential $90 million price tag. The transportation agency said the time table to review those plans has not been determined.