Neighborhood Street Reconstruction Projects Planned for 2025

Traverse City commissioners will get an overview tonight (Monday) of five neighborhood street reconstruction projects on deck in 2025, some of which will include utility and/or pedestrian/cyclist improvements. The projects cover sections of Ninth, Eleventh, and Twelfth streets, plus the paving of gravel roads Fulton Street and Griffin Street. Tonight’s study session will also include a review of upcoming pavement preservation projects and discussion on downtown’s planned continuance of its two-way street pilot.

Street Reconstruction
Old Town, Central, and Slabtown neighborhoods are all slated to receive street reconstruction projects this year. Staff tonight will give commissioners a rundown on the five projects, which include:

> East Ninth Street from Union Street to Cass Street: Road reconstruction, water main and storm sewer replacement, sanitary manhole replacement
> Eleventh Street from Pine Street to Lake Avenue: Road reconstruction, upsizing of six-inch water main to eight-inch main from Union to Lake, storm/water quality improvements, Mobility Action Plan improvements
> East Twelfth Street from Union Street to Cass Street: Road reconstruction, replacement of two fire hydrants
> Fulton Street from Jefferson Avenue to Randolph Street: Paving of gravel road
> Griffin Street from Pine Street to Locust Street: Paving of gravel road, sewer replacement and water main extension, Mobility Action Plan improvements

The projects are estimated to cost between $5.5 and $6 million total, with funding to come from a combination of the county’s street millage and city’s water/wastewater, traffic calming, and stormwater capital funds. Work is planned to be bid out in March, with construction likely to be staggered across the upcoming spring-fall season. City Engineer Anne Pagano estimates most streets could take up to six weeks to complete, though the city will release more detailed information on schedules and detour routes closer to construction. Residential access will be maintained while work is underway.

When asked how the city determines which streets to tackle each year – a frequent question among residents – City Planning Director Shawn Winter says the city maintains a running nine-year list of planned city street projects. That list includes regularly updated PASER ratings – the 1-10 industry scale used for measuring a road’s condition. One is very poor, while 10 is excellent – “typically a newly constructed street,” notes Pagano. The city’s PASER database shows that as of 2024, the city had 38.1 miles of road in good condition (8-10 PASER rating), 20.9 miles of road in fair condition (5-7 PASER rating), and 19.1 miles of road in poor condition (1-4 PASER Rating). All five streets planned for 2025 reconstruction work are currently rated 2 on the PASER scale.

“The other thing we do (in determining priorities) is coordinate with the utilities underneath the street,” says Winter. “We never want to pave or reconstruct a street and then have utilities rip it up later.” The city’s utility funds are enterprise funds, meaning they are intended to be self-sustaining through fees/revenues generated. Sometimes, then, if there aren’t enough utility funds in a certain year, a street reconstruction project that requires underlying utility work will be delayed until there’s enough funding available for both aspects of the project to move forward simultaneously. Scheduling projects thus represents “a balance” of factors, says Pagano.

This year, yet another factor is at play. Traverse City planning commissioners in 2024 approved a new master plan that includes a transportation subplan called the Mobility Action Plan. That plan calls for a variety of bike and pedestrian infrastructure improvements throughout the city. Implementing many of those upgrades will take proactive action from commissioners to dedicate funding to their execution, Winter says, but others can be packaged into street reconstruction projects as they arise.

Eleventh and Griffin streets are two examples of that approach this year. As prescribed in the Mobility Action Plan, both roadways are planned to receive “sharrows,” or arrow-shaped pavement markings indicating a shared lane environment for cars and bikes. The markings don’t establish a separate bike lane but rather serve as a visual reminder to drivers to share the road with cyclists.

At the intersection of Eleventh/Cass (pictured) and Eleventh/Union, the city also plans to install rectangular rapid flashing beacons (RRFBs), or push-activated pedestrian crossing lights. In place now on Eighth Street and Woodmere Avenue, RRFBs are different than HAWK signals (like those on Grandview Parkway): RRFBs warn drivers pedestrians are crossing, while HAWKs are regulatory and use traffic signals to stop vehicles. RRFBs are effective in helping pedestrians cross safely and cuing drivers to their presence, says Pagano.

The city also plans to build a multi-use trail connection from Locust to Union across a city-owned parcel north of Speedway as part of the Griffin Street project. The idea in the future, says Winter, is to have a non-motorized pathway running parallel to Fourteenth Street all the way down the corridor to connect the Boardman Lake Loop Trail to The Village at Grand Traverse Commons. The Griffin Street trail will provide only a short part of that connection, but a planned reconstruction of Fourteenth Street in the coming years could provide an opportunity to finish that pathway, Winter says.

While the city’s nine-year list of street projects has typically just been used internally, Pagano notes staff are working on creating a Pavement Asset Management Plan that will show pavement preservation work planned for the next five years. That plan, intended to be brought before commissioners for review at a future study session and then adopted, will be publicly available and allow residents to see upcoming projects several years out.

Also at tonight’s commission meeting...
> In addition to street reconstruction work, staff will review a list of planned 2025 pavement preservation projects. Those projects are targeted for roads with a PASER rating between 3 and 6 to extend the lifespan of their asphalt – sometimes up to a decade more before reconstruction is needed, Pagano says. Most projects are cape (chip) seal projects, though some will involve mill-and-fill or overlay work. Planned project areas include sections of Third Street, Anderson Road, Birchwood Avenue, Boyd Avenue, Carver Street, North Cedar Street, Clinch Street, Fern Street, Grant Street, Hannah Avenue, Terrace Drive, Kinross Street, Lincoln Street, Locust Street, South Madison Street, South Maple Street, North Maple Street, Oak Street, Randall Court, Steele Street, Washington Street, and Wenonah Street.

> Commissioners will discuss a recommendation from the Traverse City Downtown Development Authority (DDA) to extend a pilot project converting State Street, Pine Street, and Boardman Avenue to two-way traffic by two more years. Experimenting with signal modifications at key intersections, mid-block crosswalks, and different alley or delivery configurations – as well as other adjustments like potentially making Front Street two-way temporarily – could produce more data and better determine whether the pilot is effective, DDA staff and consultants have said.