As winter winds down, Michigan’s other season is getting set to begin, and there are a number of road construction projects on tap. The Ticker attended an overview meeting last night hosted by the Traverse Transportation Coordinating Initiative (TTCI, formerly TC-TALUS) and Networks Northwest.

In Traverse City, there are nine pavement preservation projects scheduled for 2018; most are considered minor, with minimal inconvenience to drivers. The three major projects are South Garfield from Centre to Hannah; East State from Hope to South Garfield; and Hastings from Boon to East Eighth. The roads in question will be undergoing various means of reconstruction, from milling and overlay work to aggregate conditioning.

Four other projects include reconstruction on Randolph between North Division and Bay, which will include underground utility replacement; Lake Avenue streetscape between Cass and East Eighth; and two Eighth Street projects. City engineer Tim Lodge, who led the presentation on Traverse City, says work on Eighth Street will take place in seven phases as the city does its best to mitigate the impact on businesses. The first phase will involve reconstruction of the alley on the north side that will provide access for businesses when work takes place on the road itself. Starting in the fall will be rehabilitation of the Eighth Street bridge over the Boardman River.

Officials in East Bay and Elmwood Townships say they face similar challenges, dealing with US-31 in East Bay and M-22 in Elmwood, respectively. Both are heavily traveled main corridors into and out of Traverse City, making them hazardous for pedestrians trying to cross. Planner Rick Brown of East Bay Township notes several options the township is looking at to address the situation, including one that might not seem obvious: branding the commercial part of the corridor “The Beach District.”

He says rather than just a clever way to bring notice to the area, it’s part of a concerted effort to get traffic to slow down. It will include enhancing the appearance of the area with plantings, and potentially encouraging future business owners to have their buildings closer to the road and parking in back. He says studies have shown such a design makes the road feel narrower to drivers, causing them to slow down.

Both he and Jeff Shaw, supervisor for Elmwood Township, say providing a means for pedestrians to safely cross the roads are of paramount importance. They tout the idea of seasonal crosswalks like the one at the Discovery Center Pier on M-22.  

Though several Michigan Department of Transportation projects will take place this summer, they will not be impacting the city of Traverse City so much as routes into town. MDOT will be working on a two-mile portion of M-37 from Vance Road to Rennie School Road and two portions of M-72. On the east will be a 7.7 mile stretch from County Line East to Kalkaska Road and on the extreme west from Empire to County Road 669. Specific project timing was not discussed.

MDOT representatives also discussed potential future options at the intersection of M-22 and M-72 at Tom’s West Bay shopping center. Given its proximity to West Bay, there is not a lot of room to make major changes like a roundabout, which would also impact the TART Trail/pedestrian crossing at the intersection. Running Bay Street into the Parkway rather than into M-72 could also be an option, as could making an indirect left if that happened, where northbound or westbound traffic would first have to turn right and go east along the bay before being rerouted in the opposite direction. That would also require widening the roadway, which is difficult given the presence of West Bay.

In addition to road construction updates, Tyler Bevier, transportation planner at BATA, made a brief presentation, noting the bus service is looking at providing more and longer service, including more east-west connections and some routes serving riders from 6am to 1am.