Where's the best location to build a cross-town bypass in Traverse City? And what impact would such a project have on other traffic planning efforts in the city – if any?

Those questions – at the center of a decades-long debate among residents and city leaders – have been reignited in recent weeks as two major projects move forward: a $3.1 million replacement of the Cass Road bridge over the Boardman Dam, and a Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) public planning process to develop design scenarios for Division Street between Fourteenth Street and Grandview Parkway.

The new Cass Road bridge, slated for construction in 2015, will replace the existing one-lane crossing over the Boardman Dam near Keystone Road with a two-lane span. The project is part of the Boardman River Dams Project and will precede the removal of the dam underneath in 2016. While the bridge is expected to facilitate more vehicle traffic on Cass, Garfield Township Supervisor Chuck Korn has criticized the project as a waste of funds and a “chess move” by environmental groups on the Boardman River Dams Implementation Team (IT) to circumvent a long-discussed Hartman-Hammond bridge.

“I think their hope is to say, 'We've already built a bridge, we don't need another one,'” says Korn, who says the IT has “overreached into traffic planning” by pursuing the bridge as part of the dam removal project. “But this is not the right place for it. I think we need to restart the discussion about Hartman-Hammond.”

Earlier this month, the Garfield Township Board of Trustees passed resolutions of non-support for the Cass Road bridge and support for a Hartman-Hammond bridge, which Korn says he may soon approach the Grand Traverse County Board of Commissioners and Traverse City Commission about backing.

IT spokesperson Chuck Lombardo disagrees the group is traffic planning, noting the Grand Traverse County Road Commission is spearheading the grant funding application process and that “people would be pretty unhappy” if the existing bridge was removed and not replaced. “The projects are linked because when the dam goes, there's obviously no more crossing,” he says. Lombardo also disagrees the new bridge will negate Hartman-Hammond, saying there's “absolutely no” reason one has to preclude the other.

Both Korn and Traverse City Mayor Michael Estes tell The Ticker that whatever happens on Cass, the road's future is linked to other parts of the city – including Division Street. Recent MDOT workshops designed to gather public input on improving Division generated resident calls for traffic-calming measures, improved pedestrian crossings and better bike accessibility. But Korn says MDOT isn't “interested in slowing their highways down to 25mph...they're into the fast and efficient movement of people and freight.”

But if “MDOT felt there was a consensus in the community that people wanted to get the highways out of downtown and improve traffic flow through a bypass (like Hartman-Hammond)," says Korn, "I think they would be in.” Estes adds that “there is no better time to explore the east-west traffic issue” since the state is “exploring potentially major changes to Division Street.”

MDOT Transportation Planner Patty O'Donnell says her agency will not consider the impact of a potential Hartman-Hammond or other bypass as part of the Division study, since there's no evidence such a project would relieve traffic on Division and MDOT has to “work with what we have now.” But as with the bypass, O'Donnell says there are many conflicting opinions about what's best for the corridor.

“Some people want bike lanes, and others have said no bike lanes,” says O'Donnell. “Some want traffic calming...and others have said they don't want the speeds slowed down. We have to look at the big picture and pull from all of these suggestions...to come up with three different design scenarios.”

MDOT plans to unveil those scenarios for public feedback in late February, O'Donnell says.