Construction has paused on Michigan Avenue for the winter season, and some local business owners along the route say the stoppage was needed after months of closures.
The work is part of the city’s rehabilitation project on the road between Pennsylvania Avenue and Howard Street.
Richard Ankney owns Hoplite Games. He says he’s felt the impact of construction over the past six months, but he thinks the pause is already helping.
“We've noticed already a slight influx of new consumers coming into the store. A lot of ‘We didn't know you were even here’ kind of situation,' but we're glad for it, and we know that it's definitely going to help having Michigan Avenue back open, especially during the holiday season,” he said.
Michigan Avenue is currently open to both directions of traffic. There are also new bikes lanes along the road.
However, the design has received pushback from cycling advocates who say the one-way lanes could increase crashes with pedestrians. The lanes run right next to the sidewalks, not on the road.
Lansing Public Service Director Andy Kilpatrick said he acknowledges not all cyclists are going to be happy with the change, but he said the design was based on the need to have two driving lanes going into downtown with one going outbound.
“If the traffic volumes change in the future, we might be able to kind of reconfigure the road, so we have three lanes: a center turn lane, one lane each direction, and we could have on-street bike lanes as well" he said. "That would be something that might then appeal to both types of cyclists.”
Kilpatrick says there’s currently no clear delineation between the bike lane and the sidewalk but says signage and stripes will be added over the winter.
He adds the project on Michigan Avenue is more than halfway done. Construction will resume in spring of 2025 with the project expected to be completed later in the year.
Produced with assistance from the Public Media Journalists Association Editor Corps funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
