It has reopened but it's my understanding that it's not quite yet done. They still have to do the other half which includes the supplemental lane at the Lansing road exits. I think that was set for next year.
It will be nice to have a lot of the highway traffic off the surface streets even though the project has yet to be totally finished. When I lived in REO-town detours of 496 would raise the noise and pollution levels very noticeably.
There is list a by LSJ [pay] of the worse intersections in Greater Lansing, N. Homer and E. Saginaw being number one with 85 crashes last year! It is crazy around there; I often avoid driving that way. A fellow from the township just kind of threw up his hands and said, the intersections were out of date not designed to handle the traffic the area has today without offering a solution. One idea would be to have a local traffic, separated lane on Homer, on the right that traffic for local cross streets and businesses and Frandor would use, with the other left lanes for thru traffic headed to the north and 127, traffic coming off 127 would have to go down Saginaw to turn right into the Frandor area. this might lessen the cross-lane races with local traffic in its own lane there would be fewer cars in left lanes making merging across easier.
I just had an idea there could be a local traffic lane which one could enter at Michigan and the other intersections on the right, this lane would be separated from the thru lanes on the left. This could keep slower local traffic separated from the traffic exiting 127. that traffic would still have to cross over to the right to go east on Saginaw, next to the local lane with two right turn lanes. Just a thought perhaps not well communicated.
One way to fix that exit would be to route the Saginaw exit diagonally under Homer to come up on its right side for the turn at Saginaw. Certainly not a cheap undertaking but I feel something like that will necessary some day.
The first step should be to put a stop sign on N Homer St that requires local traffic to stop and yield to traffic exiting the freeway. This setup is all over metro Detroit.
That is kind of what I was trying to convey, a separate lane for local traffic on the right, and two north bound lanes for thru-traffic which could have a stop sign for off ramp traffic. That traffic would not cross into the local lane but turn right onto Saginaw from a lane next to the local lane. I have often thought how a huge traffic circle could be built but that would be very complected and expensive!
I have not heard of it and I'm not a huge fan of getting rid of the boulevard at first thought, I'd rather see it extended north to Saginaw/Oakland. They could potentially sell me on the idea of narrowing the street if it opens up some land for development and there's some assurances that it will be developed in way fitting to mark the western edge of downtown. I won't have any strong opinion on it until I see some kind of plan.
I forgot about that being a thing. I don't know the answer to your question but now I'm curious about the specific routing, how they'll separate the trail from the tracks and if it will be over the rail bridge at Saginaw. Keep us updated if you find anything out
EDIT - Just went back to see the language of the grant acceptance, it looks like it will be in the East St ROW:
WHEREAS; the East Street Pathway project would construct a pathway within the East
Street public right of way adjacent the CSX railway between May Street and Shiawassee
Street and a connection to the Saginaw Street bike lanes at the intersection of Saginaw
Street and Center Street
Comments
EDIT - Just went back to see the language of the grant acceptance, it looks like it will be in the East St ROW: