I don't really know why they keep that railroad either. Maybe they do use it a few times a year to bring equipment in and out of Reid Machinery. I hope to see it vacated and turned into a street if the factories on Mt Hope are renovated or turned into a pathway if they're not.
Seeing the section of freeway built over Cedar St is weird. I'd also assume it was in preparation for 496, it wouldn't make much sense otherwise.
EDIT: Just checking out some Sanborn Maps from 1951 and some history on 496. It appears what happened is that the widening of Cedar predates the bridges by quite a few years. The idea of a freeway through central Lansing didn't even become a thought until 1955, and even then, there wasn't even idea of a route for it. US 27 was routed over Cedar essentially making it a highway long before 496 was even planned. It appears, then, that the interchange wasn't conceived as a necessity for 496, rather the other way around. The original purpose of the interchange was connecting Main - which was a major business districts before the freeway - with newly widened Cedar Street highway (US-27), which actually informed the decision for the routing of 496 many years later.
So 496 didn't attract and neccesitate the interchange; the interchange ended up attracting the routing of 496. This can also be seen the the very design of the bridge, which isn't freeway-ready, sitll allowing for the River Street Bridge, which would have to be torn down for a freeway-grade bridge. What else is apparent is that Main Street east of the river didn't connect to the original existing pieces of of 496 built between I-96 and the Frandor area on the eastside and I-96 and Logan (MLK) on the westside, so this kind of bridge and interchange would have been a waste of money if it was meant do connect the existing parts of the freeway. The parts of the freeway between Logan and the Trowbridge interchange weren't completed until the end of 1970, nearly a decade after this picture was taken.
I saw them doing this Saturday, but apparently Laux Construction was changing out a cooling tower on the roof of the Grand Tower along with other HVAC work. Anyway, they have some cool views from their project on their facebook page:
I'm happy to see that the old abandoned gas station at the southeast corner of Saginaw and Homer near Frandor is finally being preped for development. This has got to be the most visible form of blight along arguably one of the most heavily trafficked areas in the entire region. I've been down-right shocked given the redevelopment of the area immediately around it that it was allowed to sit empty so long.
I have no idea if redevelopment is imminent - or even who owns the site - but I'd noticed the other day they've dug up the massive underground tank on the site, and they were cutting it into pieces when I drove by, today. This thing literally sits at the end of the ramp of US-127.
A "Todd McDonald" bought this back in 2012 in a bank sale. Also, the zoning maps has this strip of land basically all zoned "F" commercial. I was also kind of surprised to find that every parcel in the Lansing Township section of Urbandale south of this area is also zoned Commercial or General Business despite most of it being residential.
I'm not surprised at all to see something get built here. What would be surprising is if it turns out to be anything more than another small strip mall or fast food restaurant. I'd love to see this area move towards mixed use buildings.
The Lansing portion of this area seems to already be doing this with Midtown and SkyVue. Lansing Township's leadership is about as behind-the-times as you can get, though. Even when given a blank slate (Eastwood) they still can't seem to do it right, IMO. There was an article the other day in one of publications showing how dire the township's finances are, and how the new Groesbeck Drain is really threatening the solvency of the township. They are a perfect candidate for a Township Manager position to make the township government more professional, but that'll never happen. At the moment, the leadership is an old friends-and-family plan fiefdom.
You'd have thought being right up next to - and sometimes literally surrounded by - the City of Lansing they'd be one of the more cooperative and progressive urban townships in the region, and it's actually the oppsite. I drove down Hungerford and then St. Joseph in the southend of the western portion of the township yesterday for the first time in a long time, and while it was never nice, it's some of the worst-looking street frontage in the entire region, even for an industrial area. It has always sort of surprised me how you cross the tracks over from the Westside neighborhood in Lansing into the township and how much the quality of houses declines.
I don't know how it will happen, but Lansing Township will eventually be annexed by Lansing. It has to happen for the sake of the region, I think it'd be better for most Township residents over the long run also. I could see the broken up eastern portions of Lansing Township being annexed first, with them possibly trying to hold on to the Eastwood area. There's no reason for Lansing Township to exist, it's a detriment to the region as it sits, the City of Lansing just needs to prove to residents that they're better off with the City than the Township.
With the city growing again, I think this is more likely than it used to be. For a long time Lansing was running deficits and losing population. With both those things turned around, and Lansing looking in obvious better shape than the township, I'd like to see this talk started back up. I've said it before, but if a compromised must be worked out, maybe they can keep their "downtown" up at Eastwood and maybe the western section, which has some viable residential areas up above Saginaw. But, the rest of it needs to come to Lansing to be properly maintained and redeveloped in a way which their local government has neither the will nor expertise to accomplish. What Lansing is doing with their half of Urbandale should be what happens to the Lansing Township portion. The portion that includes the other part of Groesbeck and Frandor would also greatly benefit from being in Lansing since it's all in the same watershed. These areas would not have to worry about how it's going to pay for the Groesbeck Drain were they in Lansing. The little southeast square that includes MSU experimental farms is really insigificant; I don't care who would get that.
But, yeah, on the westside the vacant/underutilized industrial lands south of Michigan should have been with the city yesterday, and I'm a bit confused why Bernero hasn't even publically gone to the media with the wish to at least do a 425 Agreement with this land. I mean, if we can do these kind of things for land not even configuous with the city in Delta, Meridian and Alaiedon townships, we should have certainly been pushing for it with township immediately adjacent to the city. There are things Lansing can offer potential developers for those sites that Lansing Township simply doesn't have the authority to do. That developers, for instance, have to try and negotiate a plan with both Lansing and the township over at Verlindian, Metal Center, Craft Centre is crazy when this is the same complex. The land I saw down on St. Joseph between Hungerford and Waverly is also a mess in that it's a bunch of miss-matched parcels that probably should be combined to form a workable warehouse district/industrial park. Lansing Township tried to do something with this a few years back, but have so overextended themselves at Eastwood that they don't have the bonding capacity to do anything, and I don't really blame the county for not putting themselves on the hook.
Yeah, ultimately I think all of Lansing Township should be dissolved, but paring the Township down to Eastwood and their western core would be a good and sensible start.
The Public Service Department is out with more old aerials which I find insanely interesting. Anyway, this is from the same area we talked about above, but from 1974 when 496 was finally brought through the most urban part of the route. It required a complete redo of the existing Main-St. Joseph Street Bridge which connected those roads to what was then the meeting of US 127 and US 27. Apparently, US 27 was routed along (south) Washington before turning east and taking Main over the river to Larch Street and continued north along Larch to Northern Michigan. At the time, US-127 ended at this interchange coming in from the south with a routing along (south) Cedar Street through Lansing.
US-127 was rerouted off Cedar around the time of this picture onto the new freeways along the Eastside, I believe. US-27 was rerouted off of Washington, Main and Cedar/Larch/East streets in 1988 to run concurrently with I-69 around the city on the west and north sides. Between 1999 and 2002, the US-27 designation was eliminated in Michigan altogether with US-127 taking over all of US-27 north of the old I-69/US-27 - US-127 interchange up in the northeast corner of the loop.
Confusing, huh? lol
The River Street Bridge is still in existence at this time, but would not be long for the world. lol
Comments
Seeing the section of freeway built over Cedar St is weird. I'd also assume it was in preparation for 496, it wouldn't make much sense otherwise.
So 496 didn't attract and neccesitate the interchange; the interchange ended up attracting the routing of 496. This can also be seen the the very design of the bridge, which isn't freeway-ready, sitll allowing for the River Street Bridge, which would have to be torn down for a freeway-grade bridge. What else is apparent is that Main Street east of the river didn't connect to the original existing pieces of of 496 built between I-96 and the Frandor area on the eastside and I-96 and Logan (MLK) on the westside, so this kind of bridge and interchange would have been a waste of money if it was meant do connect the existing parts of the freeway. The parts of the freeway between Logan and the Trowbridge interchange weren't completed until the end of 1970, nearly a decade after this picture was taken.
I have no idea if redevelopment is imminent - or even who owns the site - but I'd noticed the other day they've dug up the massive underground tank on the site, and they were cutting it into pieces when I drove by, today. This thing literally sits at the end of the ramp of US-127.
A "Todd McDonald" bought this back in 2012 in a bank sale. Also, the zoning maps has this strip of land basically all zoned "F" commercial. I was also kind of surprised to find that every parcel in the Lansing Township section of Urbandale south of this area is also zoned Commercial or General Business despite most of it being residential.
You'd have thought being right up next to - and sometimes literally surrounded by - the City of Lansing they'd be one of the more cooperative and progressive urban townships in the region, and it's actually the oppsite. I drove down Hungerford and then St. Joseph in the southend of the western portion of the township yesterday for the first time in a long time, and while it was never nice, it's some of the worst-looking street frontage in the entire region, even for an industrial area. It has always sort of surprised me how you cross the tracks over from the Westside neighborhood in Lansing into the township and how much the quality of houses declines.
But, yeah, on the westside the vacant/underutilized industrial lands south of Michigan should have been with the city yesterday, and I'm a bit confused why Bernero hasn't even publically gone to the media with the wish to at least do a 425 Agreement with this land. I mean, if we can do these kind of things for land not even configuous with the city in Delta, Meridian and Alaiedon townships, we should have certainly been pushing for it with township immediately adjacent to the city. There are things Lansing can offer potential developers for those sites that Lansing Township simply doesn't have the authority to do. That developers, for instance, have to try and negotiate a plan with both Lansing and the township over at Verlindian, Metal Center, Craft Centre is crazy when this is the same complex. The land I saw down on St. Joseph between Hungerford and Waverly is also a mess in that it's a bunch of miss-matched parcels that probably should be combined to form a workable warehouse district/industrial park. Lansing Township tried to do something with this a few years back, but have so overextended themselves at Eastwood that they don't have the bonding capacity to do anything, and I don't really blame the county for not putting themselves on the hook.
US-127 was rerouted off Cedar around the time of this picture onto the new freeways along the Eastside, I believe. US-27 was rerouted off of Washington, Main and Cedar/Larch/East streets in 1988 to run concurrently with I-69 around the city on the west and north sides. Between 1999 and 2002, the US-27 designation was eliminated in Michigan altogether with US-127 taking over all of US-27 north of the old I-69/US-27 - US-127 interchange up in the northeast corner of the loop.
Confusing, huh? lol
The River Street Bridge is still in existence at this time, but would not be long for the world. lol