Sidewalk Show Down Concerns Addressed, Project by Project

by Tina Cole-Mullins

Orange barrels arrived ahead of the orange leaves this fall in Stockbridge as construction and sidewalk repairs took place along Clinton Street. The barrels will outlast the leaves, as more work is scheduled into the next year, as originally reported in an in-depth Sidewalk Show Down report back in the September issue of Stockbridge Community News.  Let’s check on the progress of those plans.

As reported in August, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is spending $400,000 on Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) upgrades to some of the town’s sidewalks. Although it was reported the first phase of the project would be a push button light at the busy crosswalk located at Elizabeth Street between Mugg & Bopps and Hungry Howie’s, that project has yet to start. However, phases two and three, focusing along M-52/South Clinton Street from the main four corners’ intersection in downtown Stockbridge to Green Road, is in progress, with much of the work downtown completed.  The idea is to bring these village sidewalks into compliance with the ADA. The current MDOT plan is to complete all phases by the end of August 2020.

In addition to the MDOT work, the village has been striving to improve other area walkways and roads using funds garnered through Michigan Act 51*. One major area addressed with those funds was repairing a whole section of missing concrete on S. Clinton St. just south of Center Street.   “Finally, we were able to get Brian Mason and he finished the work today on the missing slab of sidewalk,” explained a relieved Molly Howlett, Stockbridge Village President, on October 21.

Howlett is looking forward to 2020 and the start of work on the Elizabeth Street culvert bridge improvements, where “a safe, new, [and] far more attractive bridge designed by David Arthur Consultants” will be installed, as detailed by Howlett in the previous report.

If you would like to read about the MDOT Three Phase Project or other village concerns addressed in Sidewalk Show Down: Handicap Accessibility and Issues with the Village Sidewalks, it can be found online in the September issue of the Stockbridge Community News or at Tina Cole-Mullins on Facebook.

*Michigan Act 51 offers grants to municipalities for “Non-Motorized Expenditures” such as shared-use pathways and structures to support the path, ramps and curb cuts providing roadway access, signs and pavement markings, and signals that support non-motorized travel. (Excluded in this allotment of funds are routine and seasonal maintenance costs.)

Photo Credit: Rose Collison