Why on earth are they repaving State street south of Briarwood?  There was 
nothing wrong with the road.  In fact it was one of the better roads in town
condition wise.  They have tied up traffic to no end, and with the work on 
Platt near the new I-94 bridge, there is no good way to go north/south!
Aaarrrggghhh!

38 responses total.

They are? I havn't been over there in a while, but I seem to remember that 
road was fine. If they're looking for roads to repave, they should look at
something like South Industrial.

there were a couple of potholes, but I think the road was in very good
condition mostly.

I bike out there a lot, and if I haven't noticed potholes that probably means
there aren't many.

On a much better paving note, Dexter Chelsea Road (formerly known as Dexter
Chelsea Pothole ;)) has now been repaved!

  Maybe they need to new water mains out there, and AA tries to
synch repaving with other roadside work, to avoid shutting down
the same road on successive years to fix different things.  New
burbs are sprawling out along Ellsworth, AA-Saline, and I think
a few other lightly developed areas south of town.  But it does
seem like the city conspired to inhibit North-South travel this
summer!

Hmm, haven't seen any pipes, they'll probably rip the road up next year for
that.  ;)

  Yeah, I drove through there today...no pipes, and the other half
of the road they've routed traffic to seems fine...a few cracks,
but by AA standards, above average.  With most other road projects,
I think, "man, it's about time," but this one is mysterious; seems
like there must be some good, non-obvious reason for it!

re 6:
I wouldn't be so sure of that!

Hm...new theory: maybe a certain portion of road expenditures are allocated
according to where property (or at least commercial property) taxes are 
generated, so like the Briarwood Merchant's Association might have asked 
for the repavement to make that area of town look newer and more upscale.

This response has been erased.

 
        I don't know ... I imagine some of the businesses around that area are
losing business; the restaraunts on the west side of State, Tripper's, and
the gas stations on the west side of State.
 
        It's pretty frustrating when you work up in that area and drive out
on State to get lunch. :)

Now they are repaving US23--and the part they are repaving is not that
bad either.

Also the new bridge they are building for Ellsworth over I94 is
moving at a s-n-a-i-l-'-s pace!

It's cool seeing it in mid-build though :-).  I'd guess US23 would be done
by the state, not the city.  They did the part north of town (north of 
Plymouth road) around four (three? five?) years ago...I hope they're not
redoing any of that!  Hm...of expressways around Ann Arbor, I can't think
of any that are outstandingly bad...nothing to compare with I275 south of
I94.

On this week's grex canoe trip, I noticed that cables and concrete were
falling off the bottom of the Broadway bridge.  I wonder how long before
that will have to be renovated. 

As for the AA area expressways, I think the safety and capacity of the
US-23/M-14 interchanges could be improved.  They could probably spend some
serious money getting rid of all the left entrance and exit ramps. And did
you notice that 2-lane 23 and 2-lane 14 combine into 2-lane 23/14? Maybe
the answer is to have 23 and 14 parallel to each other rather than
combining them.  Wouldn't that be a fun construction job? 

I don't mind left entrance ramps.  It seems that the alternative to them is
generally those annoying cloverleaf interchanges, which I would assume would
probably be much more dangerous.

The first entrance ramp change would probably be the Barton-M14 ramps, which
are pretty nuts, and 20 years ago were only supposed to be temporary!  The
Barton to M14 North involves going from a stop sign onto a very short
acceleration lane, UPHILL!  Scary stuff!

Yeah, the Barton ramps could definately use some work.  I also find it rather
annoying that it's only possible to get on 14 going East from Main Street,
and to go West involves getting on 14 going East, getting off at Barton, and
then getting back on 14 West.  Likewise, the only way to get to Main from
Eastbound 14 is to get off at Barton, get on 14 West, and then get off at Main
Street.

Not to mention that the people living on Barton hate all the North Campus
traffic racing thru their neighborhood all the time.

  My least-fave entrance around town is the Jackson Road entrance to
I-94 West.  It's got a sharp curve for the entrance, a curve on the
expressway, and a very short merge lane.

Oops, I mean I-94 East.  I think.  :)  Yeah, East, that's it.

My very least favorite entrance ramp is the one from 14 East to 23 South. 
You are traveling at a very high rate of speed around a large curve only to
merge with the fast lane of 23 South.  Every time I have to travel that way,
I can actually feel my blood pressure rise. There must be a better and safer
way to configurate the transfer from 14 to 23.

You were *west*bound on 14, right Audrey? yes I know that one, but I 
don't have the misfortunate to use it much. I think that the work on
the Barton Rd. M14 exit and the Jackson Rd Entrance to eastbound I94
are both more annoying (15 and 18 above).

But back to repaving. 

Kaplan mentioned the Broadway bridge over the river into Lower Town,
and that is notorious. That will be a big mess of a job, and very expensive.
It is not going to be able to carry buses and trucks much longer.

I also hat the Scio Church Rd. overpass over I94. It feels like the
pavement is disentegrating and will litter I94 any day now.

Right Steve, still don't know my east from my west.  The move out here from
NY really screwed up my sense of direction (I only moved here 17 years ago.
. .maybe I'll catch on one of these days)
drift off=

substitute "hate" for "hat" in the last paragraph of 21.
I say East when I mean west all too often myself. I never confuse
north and south. I think the brain is wired to do that -- I don't sweat it.

With the new skating rinks just off Scio Church, just West (yes, *West*)
of I-94, nearing completion. I expect the already-heavy traffic over
the Scio Church overpass to increase enormously. They'll have to rebuild
that bridge one day soon, and it won't be a pretty sight.

I tend to get North and South turned around a lot in Ann Arbor, because North
is always up on maps, and since I live on the South side of the river, going
North often means going downhill.

I've never heard of Lower Town.  Which end of the Broadway bridge is Lower?

Lower Town is the historical name for the section of Ann Arbor at the
North end of the Broadway Bridge.

I get east and west mixed up.  Once I wrote directions for my
sister to visit my brother in the Detroit area and she got
to Jackson before she figured out I screwed up.

Since this is the construction item, I thought I'd point out that 
Fuller Road is now closed from Glazier Way to Huron Parkway.
This probably causes some problems in accessing Huron High School.

On the other hand, it looks like Glazier way is now open after several years
of being closed.

They're almost done with that construction project, finally! I'm thrilled
that with the way it's routed my car doesn't have to breathe construction
dust as I drive to and from North Campus anymore...they just need to get
lights put up along the New and Improved Fuller.

Well, I've been noticing surveyors on the Broadway bridge this week.  Looks
like they've been out there 2 or 3 days.  What do you bet that it's renovation
time?

I'm glad I'll be moving in a month and won't be relying on that bridge
anymore.  ;)

The Broadway bridge was definitely on a list of tentative plans for repairs.
The list was to be finalized only after budget had been secured.
I saw this in the paper some weeks ago.

 It's gonna be a HUGE mess, but I'd rather have that than risk that bridge
falling in while I'm on it.

Dave Cahill entered an item in M-Net's "general" conference this month about
future plans for a bridge in that area, possibly the Broadway bridge (it went
over the railroad tracks by the train station, I think).  He said it was in
need of repairs, and people were contemplating repair, replacement, or maybe
even outright removal...sounded pretty radical!

Omni, I think it would be riskier being *under* the bridge than on it, as it
would probably disintegrate piece by piece.  Unless The Big One strikes
Michigan :-).

Unless they stop the bus traffic over it, it's likely to fail
catastrophically. It's in really bad shape. I don't think repair makes much
sense, but I'm not a civil engineer.

I used to walk over that bridge a lot when I lived in the area.
(No, I'm not the reason the bridge is in such bad shape.  >8)
It does look kinda ratty to me, but I'm no expert.

Recent (OK, not so recent, but I'm slow to enter things like this) news on
the Broadway bridges (yup, there are actually two of them):  Likely next year,
they will be redone.  Traffic down to 1 lane, maybe less at times.  The plan
is to make it wider, with more generous ped/bike lanes as well as wider car
lanes.  The bridge over the tracks has to be taller, to accomodate newer tall
train standards.  The street in front of Gandy Dancer will turn into a parking
lot (that 270 degree turn from Depot below the bridge to the northbound
bridge) will be removed.  There will be a traffic light at the upper end of
the bridge.

There is a light going in at Miller and Ashley.  Ick.  

I am surprised that hey can work on the bridges without closing them 
altogether. Of course closing them would be a disaster for traffic. 

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