Just another little note about our streets. The center median of Pennsylvania between Mt. Hope and the zoo is all in bloom right now and looks really nice. The annuals they have been planting really filled in and are very pretty. Now if they could fill the potholes on that stretch people could enjoy the flowers while driving by there.
I got a better look at the new Amtrak locomotives today, very sleek and a nice paint job. I also saw that there were a couple of new looking passenger cars as well. My building has a great view of the Washington Avenue rail crossing to the south. It is a great place for train spotting.
Yesterday another trainload of giant windmill blades went by. They are so huge one blade takes a whole train car. I wonder where they are manufactured, from up the line? The very large windmills near Alma are functioning and are now landmarks on the trip up north. They make the windmills near Ithica look small. So the tracks are interesting to watch even if it is just freight trains going by.
That is quite nice features. It would be better if there were just more buses on routes and they ran into the evening and weekends. I have had several times where I just caught the last bus of the day at the airport and if I had checked a bag I would have missed it.
LSJ is reporting a 40m reconstruction project for 496 starting in 2020. They are going to close and reconstruct one side at a time. Apparently this is why MLK is getting redone so quickly since it's a huge trunkline that is likely going to be a big detour route.
I really, really hope they use this time to make the interchanges safer. That sounds much more complex and costly than 40m so it is probably just repaving. Oh well.
Thanks for the article, Darklink. It answers a question I had of the Victor-to-Edgewood MLK resurfacing project I talked about last month. I guess that's what an "asphalt inlay of the outside two lanes" meant, simply taking out the concrete and putting in asphalt. Not sure how I feel about this. Yeah, concrete when deteriorated is harder on automobiles, but it also lasts longer. And, sure, asphalt is easier to keep patching and repaving, but you've got to do that a lot more often.
I'm a fan on concrete in major roads. But, I guess MDOT didn't want to invest in it again on this stretch of MLK.
BTW, what stretch of 496 are they talking about, exactly? Between "I-96 and Lansing Road" could be in either direction seeing as how the freewaps loop the metro. I imagine they are talking Lansing Road west? I mean, I'm about 99.9% sure that's what they mean, but you've got to be pretty explicit when talking about freeway segments in Lansing on anything other than 496.
The news about Mt. Hope is really welcome, it's almost unbelievable! I wonder if there has been any change in the paving materials that might perform better in the shaded areas of the road. I have noticed that many shaded streets have a lot of potholes right under the trees and less elsewhere. Also, are they going to use the three-lane configuration for the whole length of the street? Right now it goes from three to four and then back to three.
GBD, they are actually discussing converting it all one way or the other. I saw something on Nextdoor about how they were going to have a discussion session later this month about a three lane or four lane configuration on Mt. Hope. The decision will depend on what they see in store for this road in the future. I can see the merit of increasing it to four throughout as Michigan Ave will be "dieted" in the future and EL/Meridian Township has it as four lanes. This would service a lot of traffic from MSU as well as the new McLaren hospital.
I'm not sure that they would change it back to four for the whole length. It was changed to three relatively recently. I think the section between Cedar and 127 was changed
within the past 5 years.
Comments
Just another little note about our streets. The center median of Pennsylvania between Mt. Hope and the zoo is all in bloom right now and looks really nice. The annuals they have been planting really filled in and are very pretty. Now if they could fill the potholes on that stretch people could enjoy the flowers while driving by there.
I got a better look at the new Amtrak locomotives today, very sleek and a nice paint job. I also saw that there were a couple of new looking passenger cars as well. My building has a great view of the Washington Avenue rail crossing to the south. It is a great place for train spotting.
Yesterday another trainload of giant windmill blades went by. They are so huge one blade takes a whole train car. I wonder where they are manufactured, from up the line? The very large windmills near Alma are functioning and are now landmarks on the trip up north. They make the windmills near Ithica look small. So the tracks are interesting to watch even if it is just freight trains going by.
More of the new CATA shelters are going up, I saw this one a few days ago on Cedar. Apparently, they are more than just shelters:
That is quite nice features. It would be better if there were just more buses on routes and they ran into the evening and weekends. I have had several times where I just caught the last bus of the day at the airport and if I had checked a bag I would have missed it.
LSJ is reporting a 40m reconstruction project for 496 starting in 2020. They are going to close and reconstruct one side at a time. Apparently this is why MLK is getting redone so quickly since it's a huge trunkline that is likely going to be a big detour route.
I really, really hope they use this time to make the interchanges safer. That sounds much more complex and costly than 40m so it is probably just repaving. Oh well.
https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2019/07/12/mdot-spend-4-6-m-mlk-repaving-ahead-40-m-496-reconstruction/1710213001/
Thanks for the article, Darklink. It answers a question I had of the Victor-to-Edgewood MLK resurfacing project I talked about last month. I guess that's what an "asphalt inlay of the outside two lanes" meant, simply taking out the concrete and putting in asphalt. Not sure how I feel about this. Yeah, concrete when deteriorated is harder on automobiles, but it also lasts longer. And, sure, asphalt is easier to keep patching and repaving, but you've got to do that a lot more often.
I'm a fan on concrete in major roads. But, I guess MDOT didn't want to invest in it again on this stretch of MLK.
BTW, what stretch of 496 are they talking about, exactly? Between "I-96 and Lansing Road" could be in either direction seeing as how the freewaps loop the metro. I imagine they are talking Lansing Road west? I mean, I'm about 99.9% sure that's what they mean, but you've got to be pretty explicit when talking about freeway segments in Lansing on anything other than 496.
Both ends of Mt. Hope are up for reconstruction/resurfacing this month:
In East Lansing:
The news about Mt. Hope is really welcome, it's almost unbelievable! I wonder if there has been any change in the paving materials that might perform better in the shaded areas of the road. I have noticed that many shaded streets have a lot of potholes right under the trees and less elsewhere. Also, are they going to use the three-lane configuration for the whole length of the street? Right now it goes from three to four and then back to three.
GBD, they are actually discussing converting it all one way or the other. I saw something on Nextdoor about how they were going to have a discussion session later this month about a three lane or four lane configuration on Mt. Hope. The decision will depend on what they see in store for this road in the future. I can see the merit of increasing it to four throughout as Michigan Ave will be "dieted" in the future and EL/Meridian Township has it as four lanes. This would service a lot of traffic from MSU as well as the new McLaren hospital.
I'm not sure that they would change it back to four for the whole length. It was changed to three relatively recently. I think the section between Cedar and 127 was changed
within the past 5 years.