Also, looking at the public service departments construction map, it appears the two-way conversion downtown is currently rescheduled between May and August of next year. This was updated earlier this month, so this is recent information.
Also, looks like Aurelius is proposed to be fully reconstructed between the bridge over I-496 south to Mt. Hope Road. This is the one I'm looking foward to the most.
This is great news. There are several streets listed that I often use. One street I am going to suggest repaving is Collins Road, there are huge deep potholes resurfacing out there by the horse paddocks, it seems like this will be an even more important street to keep in good shape with the addition of the new hospital and the huge new housing complex. I am sure anyone could add at least ten streets to this list. Maybe Mayor Pete B will be sending more money from DC to the cities for streets and highways!
So many need attention, but its a start. I suppose it makes sense to focus on the major streets. I recently was driving around areas and couldn't belive the state of residential streets! I thought they were bad by me!
The city has installed new traffic signal lights in the opposing direction on Grand Avenue downtown. It will be interesting to see how this works out. I could see a green center median with "Michigan lefts" on Grand Avenue then it really would be a grand avenue.
I would prefer I496 was removed downtown and converted into a surface street network like Embarcadero Freeway and the inner loop in Rochester NY and what is planned for I375 in Detroit.
I think covering over the downtown below grade section of I-496 would be a great idea it's already below ground level. I am not sure they would remove the freeway all together as in the other cities, I think the freeways that they removed were redundant, I guess you could say I 496 does not carry the amount of traffic it was designed for, but it still serves downtown and GM with the Interstate connection. Reconnecting the north and south sides of the city would be very beneficial to the neighboring areas and for the air pollution and noise issues. I was looking at a house at S Jenison and Hillsdale and I could hear the traffic roaring from the highway. The Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston has become a tourist attraction and is actually very nice. I have talked about this idea before, it seems like a wild idea but they did it in several other places so why not here?
I've often thought about covering 496. It certainly wouldn't be cheap, but given that the freeway is already sunken and could simply be covered either with buildings and/or a continuous dirt covered bridge-like structure, I don't think that it's too crazy of a thing to be seriously considering in the long term.
Comments
Also, looking at the public service departments construction map, it appears the two-way conversion downtown is currently rescheduled between May and August of next year. This was updated earlier this month, so this is recent information.
Also, looks like Aurelius is proposed to be fully reconstructed between the bridge over I-496 south to Mt. Hope Road. This is the one I'm looking foward to the most.
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/3aebfdf9166a47c9ac53caed4b106e04
Good to see downtown 496 will be part of these plans.