Speaking of South Capitol, I also notice the other day they've installed the double-sided traffic lights (at least at the intersection with Allegan) in preperation for the transition to two-way traffic next year.
I have seen historical photos of the day Sweden switched from driving on the left as they do in England to driving on the right as we do here, it was quite a mess! I hope the same does not happen on the big day when we go back to two-way streets downtown! Capitol Ave will be a great way to get over to Old Town from REOtown.
There has been other two-way conversions downtown. Shiawassee went back two-way back in the 90's, I think it was (might have been even more recent). Shouldn't be too much trouble.
On Michigan Ave in EL, they are finishing up the water main work and have repaved the street there. I was a bit disappointed that they have not upgraded the streetscape, no nice new curbing or sidewalks at the corner just the basics that was there before. The new pavement is nice, however!
As part of the governor's announcement during her State of the State speech last night, we get news today of the major freeway and highway projects in the Lansing area that will be moved up. Mostly notably is the reconstruction of 496 between 96 and US-127 on the southeast side of town. This wasn't going to be up until 2026 at the earliest, but has been moved forward. Because of how far out it was, there are were no solid details on this, though we learned last month that they are considering adding additional merge-weave lanes or even a permanent third lane in each direction.
The one new project announced, today, was the reconstruction of 496 between Lansing Road and the Grand River, downtown. One existing project that will be included in this plan is the reconstruction of 496 between Lansing Road and I-96 in Delta Township.
This is great news. I rarely use the in-town freeways because of their condition and configuration which makes these roads dangerous. Plus I don't really need to go 75 mph for the three minutes to get across town, but I can see from my windows that a lot of people use this route and I am happy that the Governor seems to have figured a way to do these projects. I wonder if she could find some money to repave Moorse River Drive, which would make her ride home much more pleasant.
Another sight I have out of my windows is South Washington Avenue. Under the "no good deed goes unpunished" heading I used the Connect Lansing app to report a street light out. I was happy to see the BWL show up a few days later to repair the streetlight. However, they replaced the yellow/amber light with a bright blue/white LED light. This light is much more intense than the one they replaced and hits my eyes like a car with brights on inside of my kitchen. It seems to be a bit unusual around here but I really do sit and look out my windows at night and I really enjoyed my Avenue view lined with the double-headed street lamps. It was a nice harmonious look that I'm sure was part of the plans for rebuilding the street which they did only a few years ago. The BWL writes back to tell that they are phasing out the yellow/amber lights with these LED lights which are of course more "efficient and require less maintenance". I did write the Mayor about this issue but I am afraid this in another instance of the BWL just doing what it wants to without checking with anyone to see if we may not like the bright white lights, and try to understand that that the yellow lights were part of a nice looking streetscape that we paid millions to rebuild. It's a small quality of life issue, I can't have my blinds open at night anymore. I guess this is another Capital vs Capitol issue and I will just have to "get over it" as they say! But it looks really crappy.
Plus I don't really need to go 75 mph for the three minutes to get across town.
Repairing high-cost roads when that funding could go to lower-cost roads that provide the same route would be a better alternative.
I'm actually pretty happy they are planning to do a rebuild of 496 west of the Grand River. The current configuration is very dangerous, I am hoping that they will take this opportunity to make it safer for those merging in and out of the freeway.
Local roads can't be fixed with the options she has absent the legislature helping; and they don't want to help because they don't want to give her a political win and because they don't believe in additional revenues absent taking money from other departments. She was very clear that she's doing what she can within the law, which only allows bonding for federal and state highways as I understand it. The legislature - which was given a year to come up with a viable alternative and didn't - has to do something if local roads are to be fixed.
I'm beginning to think it might be best for localities to fund their own roads, why send the the money to state just for them to take a piece for administrative costs and hand the remainder back? The same goes for the Feds on a number of issues. Besides, with the upcoming wave of electric cars revenue from gas tax is going to fall dramatically and nobody has proposed a good solution to that as far as I've heard.
There was recently an idea tossed around for neighborhoods to vote to finance extra street and sidewalk repairs in Lansing, if they could really provide good quality infrastructure at the cost they proposed I would of happily voted for it. I hope to see that proposal resurface.
Comments
The one new project announced, today, was the reconstruction of 496 between Lansing Road and the Grand River, downtown. One existing project that will be included in this plan is the reconstruction of 496 between Lansing Road and I-96 in Delta Township.
Another sight I have out of my windows is South Washington Avenue. Under the "no good deed goes unpunished" heading I used the Connect Lansing app to report a street light out. I was happy to see the BWL show up a few days later to repair the streetlight. However, they replaced the yellow/amber light with a bright blue/white LED light. This light is much more intense than the one they replaced and hits my eyes like a car with brights on inside of my kitchen. It seems to be a bit unusual around here but I really do sit and look out my windows at night and I really enjoyed my Avenue view lined with the double-headed street lamps. It was a nice harmonious look that I'm sure was part of the plans for rebuilding the street which they did only a few years ago. The BWL writes back to tell that they are phasing out the yellow/amber lights with these LED lights which are of course more "efficient and require less maintenance". I did write the Mayor about this issue but I am afraid this in another instance of the BWL just doing what it wants to without checking with anyone to see if we may not like the bright white lights, and try to understand that that the yellow lights were part of a nice looking streetscape that we paid millions to rebuild. It's a small quality of life issue, I can't have my blinds open at night anymore. I guess this is another Capital vs Capitol issue and I will just have to "get over it" as they say! But it looks really crappy.
Repairing high-cost roads when that funding could go to lower-cost roads that provide the same route would be a better alternative.
There was recently an idea tossed around for neighborhoods to vote to finance extra street and sidewalk repairs in Lansing, if they could really provide good quality infrastructure at the cost they proposed I would of happily voted for it. I hope to see that proposal resurface.