Westwood Road Construction

This is from MDOT:

Project information:
Plans include widening M-43 (West Main Street) to add a right-turn lane from Drake Road to US-131, expand the south intersection at Mall Drive and add a pedestrian crossing, expand the intersection at Maple Hill Drive, remove the southbound US-131 ramp to eastbound M-43, rebuild the southbound US-131 ramp to westbound M-43 to add a traffic signal and a left turn to eastbound M-43, add a left-turn signal on M-43 at 10th Street, and add a right-turn lane on eastbound M-43 between the southbound US-131 ramp and 10th Street. Work is tentatively scheduled for April - September.

And from my memory of the presentation: there will be 2 pedestrian islands located between Drake and Northampton. 

 I'm unsure as to whether they are going in after the work to the west, or if it will be concurrent. I do know that it will cause significant disruption to traffic, and would caution us all to minimize that by going north to go either east or west. Please know that while the city will be partnering with MDOT on utility and water work on that project, we are not (literally) driving the bus. I hope that they finish by September, October at the latest.

I had a chance to chat with the MDOT rep at the meeting, and I asked her about the road diet for W Main from Solon to the bottom of W Main Hill. She said there is too much traffic on there to do such a project now, but that perhaps after the 131 business loop is completed, it may take some of the traffic away, and they would do another traffic study. That is at least 3 years off. Until then, we take out lives in our hands every time we drive on West Main. 

I do believe that many of the crashes we're seeing are from distracted drivers. 

Jeanne  

We need to do our part - See Something, Say Something.  The police can't be everywhere, all the time so we need to help. 

WESTWOOD NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION

A Safer West Main Street:

The Kalamazoo Ave redesign project being undertaken by the City of Kalamazoo is in the planning and design phase right now, with construction slated for next year. The preliminary redesign for the bottom of W. Main Hill by Douglas and K. College has caused concerns among neighbors about the long-term design of W. Main. The main issue is that MDOT controls most of the street right of way, so city staff must conform their plans to what MDOT's design is further up the hill, even though they would prefer a safer configuration.

With the help of some neighbors from Stuart and W. Main Hill, a  group gathered stories and data around the current design of W. Main and found it is quite unsafe in its current form, burdens residents and businesses, and that it doesn't need to be this way.

They have it on good authority that MDOT is willing to entertain a safer design for W. Main, but is not likely to do so unless some of the public entities come together to voice approval for this change. Neighborhood leaders around W. Main say that they believe a vast majority of residents would prefer a safer configuration.

So, the group has written a petition to encourage MDOT to work with the local municipalities to redesign W. Main, so when construction work starts next year, the configuration of the road can change along all of W. Main (from Douglas to Solon/Kendall) and make it safer for everyone with minimal impact to traffic flow. They already have secured endorsements from Kalamazoo County commissioners, Kalamazoo City commissioners, and some local organizations/businesses.

The petition lists the number of crashes we’ve seen grow in number and a comparison to Oakland Drive.

The petition also sights the three-lane concept of an east, west and a left turn lane all the way from the foot of Main Street hill to Solon/Kendall, but it opens the discussion about ways to make the street safer for all users.

Our ask: We are requesting that you review the below petition and consider signing it so MDOT will see the concern the neighborhood has for safety on West Main Street.

We don't want to miss our narrow window of opportunity to coordinate with the construction work already happening next year at the bottom of the hill.

https://www.change.org/p/make-w-main-safer-reduce-to-3-lanes-now

Thank you for your consideration,

Ron Huster 

We need to do our part - See Something, Say Something.  The police can't be everywhere, all the time so we need to help.