Highway and Road Construction Updates

[Raildude's dad]

It is getting the 4th lane, M-21 to the split, 3 lanes from the split to Fuller WB

I hope so, I'll check with my daughter - she's designing the roadwork for the project(s)

No to redoing Maryland.

Daughter and SIL returned from AK this morning. I drove thru there when I picked them up at the airport. All the Michigan State flowers (orange barrel's) have been planted, the temporary widening is almost done, so, let the fun begin

[GRDadof3]

I-96 Westbound over the Grand River - West of Plainfield reopens the 13th. Just in time for the big I-196/96 cluster fix to start.

[Guest]

I was wondering when that would finally be open.  Traffic on Plainfield and the Beltline has been horrific.

I drove by Wealthy b/w Division and 131, looks like they did all the striping, any idea if that will be open soon?

[GRDadof3]

On 9/11/2018 at 7:16 PM, Floyd_Z said:

I was wondering when that would finally be open.  Traffic on Plainfield and the Beltline has been horrific.

I drove by Wealthy b/w Division and 131, looks like they did all the striping, any idea if that will be open soon?

Around Sept. 15th actually, according to an article from back in July. 

[GRLaker]

As if our road projects don't already take the better part of a decade to complete, we now have this going on... Labor Dispute Slows Road Projects in Ottawa County

Edited September 13, 2018 by GRLaker

[Allison Slater]

It's delaying the opening of WB 96 as well, even though 196 construction is starting. So we now have a detour of a very busy highway going through a construction zone on an already congested highway. Plus construction at EBL & Leonard. Things are getting horrible for those of us who live in the Northeast side.

[GRDadof3]

8 hours ago, tSlater said:

It's delaying the opening of WB 96 as well, even though 196 construction is starting. So we now have a detour of a very busy highway going through a construction zone on an already congested highway. Plus construction at EBL & Leonard. Things are getting horrible for those of us who live in the Northeast side.

The article I read said the labor dispute would not disrupt the reopening of I-96. I'll have to see if I can find it...

Oh nope, you're right:

https://www.woodtv.com/news/traffic/traffic-tom-wb-i-96-scheduled-to-reopen-thursday/1439427493

They did open the 131 ramp though. 

[GRDadof3]

Just saw a WoodTV headline that westbound 96 is now reopened!! 

[Hoeks]

Wealthy St at Division is open!    Just drove by this afternoon.   

[Allison Slater]

5 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

Just saw a WoodTV headline that westbound 96 is now reopened!! 

The lack of stop and go traffic on 131 NB today, the lack of traffic backed up to the previous stoplights on EBL and lack of stop and go traffic on EBL around 96 and Leonard, and lack of stop-and-go traffic on EBL from 5-mile to West River Dr... it was almost eerie. I had to check my phone to make sure it was actually 5 and I didn't leave at 3 or something. This explains it all.

[GRLaker]

On 9/13/2018 at 10:53 PM, tSlater said:

It's delaying the opening of WB 96 as well, even though 196 construction is starting. So we now have a detour of a very busy highway going through a construction zone on an already congested highway. Plus construction at EBL & Leonard. Things are getting horrible for those of us who live in the Northeast side.

Same in Georgetown Township. There have been multiple accidents at 24th and Bauer in Jenison as a result of the construction crews dragging their feet on the Cottonwood project. The backup on 24th creates two lines of cars stretching down the road in a single lane and people pull out onto Bauer in front of oncoming cars out of frustration often. Cottonwood was supposed to be completed in October. It got pushed to November as a result of them falling behind. Now we're looking at likely a winter completion with this whole strike/lockout nonsense. Another bad one is 56th in Wyoming that has gone on for months. It has created large backups at Byron Center and 52nd where you can easily sit through anywhere between 4-5 lights, depending on what time you hit it. I'm sure there are other main road examples around the city, but those are just two that I've recently dealt with. The whole thing has really screwed with peoples' daily lives.

Edited September 18, 2018 by GRLaker

[GRDadof3]

45 minutes ago, GRLaker said:

Same in Georgetown Township. There have been multiple accidents at 24th and Bauer in Jenison as a result of the construction crews dragging their feet on the Cottonwood project. The backup on 24th creates two lines of cars stretching down the road in a single lane and people pull out onto Bauer in front of oncoming cars out of frustration often. Cottonwood was supposed to be completed in October. It got pushed to November as a result of them falling behind. Now we're looking at likely a winter completion with this whole strike/lockout nonsense. Another bad one is 56th in Wyoming that has gone on for months. It has created large backups at Byron Center and 52nd where you can easily sit through anywhere between 4-5 lights, depending on what time you hit it. I'm sure there are other main road examples around the city, but those are just two that I've recently dealt with. The whole thing has really screwed with peoples' daily lives.

Yes! The  56th closing is now coinciding with 44th being closed at Burlingame.  44th Street has a sign at Clyde Park that says "closed to through traffic" but I assumed you could get through. Nope. The road is completely gone at the Burlingame intersection. Why do they insist on doing all of these parallel roads at the same time? 

[thebeerqueer]

14 hours ago, tSlater said:

The lack of stop and go traffic on 131 NB today, the lack of traffic backed up to the previous stoplights on EBL and lack of stop and go traffic on EBL around 96 and Leonard, and lack of stop-and-go traffic on EBL from 5-mile to West River Dr... it was almost eerie. I had to check my phone to make sure it was actually 5 and I didn't leave at 3 or something. This explains it all.

The  weave  construction on I-196 between M6 and Hudsonville is still going on and causing  daily slow downs. Those will pale in comparison to the  construction that's coming to that stretch of highway next summer.  Hopefully Chicago Drive  will be able to handle the increased  commuter traffic. 

[GR_Urbanist]

2 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

 Why do they insist on doing all of these parallel roads at the same time? 

I had that same question when you could not get on 131 at Wealthy, could not get down Century Ave, and also could not get down Grandville a few weeks back.

But I asked it in far more colorful language.

 

I dont think those guys remotely thinks about traffic management at all.

Edited September 18, 2018 by GR_Urbanist

[Allison Slater]

18 hours ago, GR_Urbanist said:

I had that same question when you could not get on 131 at Wealthy, could not get down Century Ave, and also could not get down Grandville a few weeks back.

But I asked it in far more colorful language.

 

I dont think those guys remotely thinks about traffic management at all.

And can't go south onto 131 from Franklin, either, if south was your goal.

[GRyan]

East Beltline north is a mess now since they closed the WB I-96 ramp and the normal detour to Leonard is closed due to construction there. It was backed up yesterday all the way to Meijer Gardens with everyone trying to do the Michigan left at Eaglecrest Dr to turn right at Leonard

[Allison Slater]

12 hours ago, GRyan said:

It was backed up yesterday all the way to Meijer Gardens with everyone trying to do the Michigan left at Eaglecrest Dr to turn right at Leonard

It's been like this for far longer than the Leonard construction.

[GRDadof3]

On 9/19/2018 at 9:05 PM, tSlater said:

It's been like this for far longer than the Leonard construction.

The difference now though is there are way too many cars looking to FUML in the next turn-around to get back to Leonard that the left lane of traffic is actually stopped. It used to just slow down before. 

[GRDadof3]

The city's DDA is looking at converting Ionia and Ottawa from one-way street to two-way streets, voted to conduct engineering study. 

https://mibiz.com/item/26195-grand-rapids-to-explore-converting-downtown-one-way-streets-to-two-way-traffic

About time..

[ZAP!]

44 minutes ago, GRDadof3 said:

The city's DDA is looking at converting Ionia and Ottawa from one-way street to two-way streets, voted to conduct engineering study. 

https://mibiz.com/item/26195-grand-rapids-to-explore-converting-downtown-one-way-streets-to-two-way-traffic

About time..

I kind of liked it for only having to pay attention to traffic from one direction walking around downtown, but it's otherwise just been an annoyance. Why were they made one-way in the first place?

[GRDadof3]

9 minutes ago, ZAP! said:

I kind of liked it for only having to pay attention to traffic from one direction walking around downtown, but it's otherwise just been an annoyance. Why were they made one-way in the first place?

When the highways were first built, the on ramps and off ramps were connected to streets and those streets were made one-way to get people in and out of downtown in a hurry.  Now that cities are trying to get people to stick around downtown, and slow traffic down for pedestrians, a lot of one-ways are being made into two-ways. I think Monroe Center should be kept one-way, but imagine if you were on Monroe Center and could turn right onto Ionia and park in the ramp? Or venture further down Ionia from there. Or go northbound on Ottawa from the arena area? 

[ZAP!]

5 minutes ago, GRDadof3 said:

I think Monroe Center should be kept one-way, but imagine if you were on Monroe Center and could turn right onto Ionia and park in the ramp? Or venture further down Ionia from there. Or go northbound on Ottawa from the arena area? 

The possibilities are endless!

[sfloria]

I wish they'd do the same thing with College and Union.    

[Guest]

Looks like I'm in the minority here, but I actually like one ways as a quick way to get in and out of downtown.  On the other hand I see people going the wrong way on the streets almost daily.  Wouldn't they have to reconfigure the I-196 ramps?  Pedestrian safety really starts with pedestrians being able to comprehend a crosswalk and crosswalk signal, they don't have the right of way if they dart out behind a truck in the middle of the street.

[GRDadof3]

23 hours ago, Floyd_Z said:

Looks like I'm in the minority here, but I actually like one ways as a quick way to get in and out of downtown.  On the other hand I see people going the wrong way on the streets almost daily.  Wouldn't they have to reconfigure the I-196 ramps?  Pedestrian safety really starts with pedestrians being able to comprehend a crosswalk and crosswalk signal, they don't have the right of way if they dart out behind a truck in the middle of the street.

No, they wouldn't have to reconfigure them. At the Ottawa off-ramp, the left lane or left two lanes would have to turn left onto Michigan (because they'd be facing oncoming traffic). Not a bid deal. The right lanes would have to either go straight down Ottawa or turn right onto Michigan like they do now.

Ionia might be trickier because it's a narrower street. Northbound would have its choice of turning either way on Michigan, or going straight to the on-ramps. Actually Ionia from Lyon up to Michigan could probably stay one way going North, it's pretty desolate no-man's land anyway. Leave it for now and take another look at it in 10 years. But imagine being on Lyon headed East, and being able to turn RIGHT onto Ionia, instead of having to go to Division to turn right? That would be nice. 

Fountain and Lyon being one-way streets always baffled me, especially in the heart of Heritage Hill. 

In other news, the I-196/96 junction is becoming a huge construction site. I'm trying to figure out what it all means right now (what's temporary and what's permanent).

As far as I can tell, the red line to the left near Maryland is going to be a temporary crossover to put all traffic in the Eastbound lanes, to make the Westbound bridge over Plymouth wider to accommodate the extra lane(s). The red line at the top is going to be the new southbound bridge approach that will take 96 traffic over the new sections to the Beltline exit. The red lines in the middle will be the new "express" traffic that is skipping the Beltline exit, headed Eastbound.

The black thing is a new crane to build the bridges, that showed up the other day.

My edumacated guess.