After a year of in-depth study, the Grand Traverse County Road Commission is preparing to unveil several options to improve east-west traffic flow around Traverse City. They plan to host a public meeting in February to announce the options, but in the meantime, officials are keeping details under wraps.

As Patrick Sullivan writes in this week's Northern Express - sister publication of The Ticker - the road commission has released a map that roughly shows nine route alternatives under consideration, but has refused to provide any details until that yet-to-be-scheduled meeting. That’s a red flag for some observers who fear that this process, which the road commission has dubbed the East-West Corridor Transportation Study, is predestined to result yet again in some form of a Hartman-Hammond Bridge proposal.

When a Hartman-Hammond Bridge was first proposed in the 1990s, the road commission dug in and pursued the project single-mindedly, setting them up against a coalition of opponents who opposed the project on environmental and anti-sprawl grounds. The debate sparked a discussion of “smart growth” and ultimately, after the bridge project was abandoned, sparked the Grand Vision project, a years-long discussion of growth in the region.

This time around, now that the topic has again turned to how to reduce congestion on east-west corridors, like South Airport Road, the road commission is decidedly not single-minded – all options are on the table, including improving existing corridors, and they’ve gone to great lengths to include everyone in the planning, says Megan Olds, the project’s spokeswoman. John Nelson, a former road commissioner who has attended the study sessions on behalf of the Northern Michigan Environmental Action Council, agrees that officials have attempted to be inclusive and hear the voices from across the spectrum, but he is baffled by the road commission’s refusal to offer details about the route alternatives before that public meeting in February.

“The thing is, [some of the proposed route alternatives] have been released,” Nelson says. “I don’t know what to say. I was at the meeting where it was shared with 30 people. They encouraged us to share them with our membership.”

Some observers are already skeptical about the process and are worried that another Hartman-Hammond bridge proposal is a “fait accompli,” Nelson says. “Many of my membership feel the solution is already baked in the cake.” Nelson says if the road commission is truly committed to a public and transparent process, they would release all of the information they have, and they would want to get the details out prior to a public meeting.

Read more about the east-west study and the road commission's upcoming meeting in this week's Northern Express cover story, "The $365,000 Question." The Northern Express is available to read online, or pick up a free copy at one of nearly 700 spots in 14 counties across northern Michigan.