Road and other improvement projects will dominate the Traverse City commission agenda tonight (Monday), with commissioners set to discuss the planned 2022 construction of a roundabout at Keystone and River roads – the proposed design of which could require a city easement – as well as other upcoming projects planned by both the city and Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT).

Staff will seek input from city commissioners on the proposed design for the Keystone/Beitner/River roads roundabout, planned to be constructed by the Grand Traverse County Road Commission in 2022. According to City Director of Public Services Frank Dituri, design discussions have included “having a leg of the roundabout serve a new, combined trailhead on the Keystone Dam property. This will provide a much better and safer way for parkland users to access the Keystone Dam property and Natural Education Reserve by combining the county’s Keystone Rapids trailhead, currently located on the north side of Beitner Road where it crosses the river, and the Oleson Bridge trailhead.”

The access leg will provide improved access to a city nursery site that’s part of the Natural Education Reserve, according to Dituri. The city owns approximately 54 acres near the roundabout area that was the site of the former city-owned Keystone Dam, which washed out in 1961. The property now includes a recreational trail, trailhead parking, trees originally planted for nursery purposes, and trees planted for habitat. A new access leg as part of the roundabout design could “benefit property accessibility” at no cost to the city, Dituri said.

According to Dituri, the city has several legal options for providing permission to build the access leg, including an easement, encroachment agreement, permit, or removal agreement. “Additionally, a temporary grading easement will also be required during the term of construction,” he said. Commissioners tonight are in a study session, meaning they will not vote on any particular course of action but give input to staff on the direction they’d like to take with roundabout access and vote on a formal agreement at a future meeting.

Both the city engineering department and Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) staff will give presentations to commissioners tonight on other upcoming projects. According to documents prepared by City Engineer Tim Lodge, two more downtown bridge projects are coming up in 2022: the South Union Street bridge, estimated at $1.575 million, and the North Cass Street Bridge, estimated at $800,000. South Union work will include replacing the existing concrete deck and steel beams on the existing foundation, widening sidewalks as much as possible, installing a pedestrian railing approaching the bridge, and installing MDOT crash-tested and approved bridge railing and a historic balustrade pedestrian railing. North Cass work will include replacing the existing deck, concrete beams, and railing on the existing foundation, as well as similar sidewalk and railing work as South Union (minus the historic balustrade pedestrian railing).

Other projects planned in 2022 include a $473,3000 resurfacing of Garfield Avenue from Hannah Avenue to Front Street this spring. That project will convert part of Garfield from four lanes to three lanes to incorporate bike lanes south of Eighth Street, improve sidewalks to meet ADA requirements, and remove driveway flares in two locations. Madison and Jefferson streets are both set to be reconstructed in the 2022-23 season – projects estimated to cost $1.44 million and $939,000 respectively – and could include a large diameter storm crossing near Randolph Street. The city has also applied for state funding for a project to resurface Veterans Drive between Fourteenth Street and the city limits. That project will include the removal and replacement of the asphalt and concrete pavement and the construction of new watermain on Veterans Drive. Sidewalk will be infilled on the west side of the road north of Boughey Street, and “concepts for reducing speed and stormwater management are being developed,” according to Lodge.

A project several years in the works to replace more than 2,400 feet of 12-inch watermain along Division Street from Fourteenth Street to the city limits south of Fitzhugh Drive is finally on track to take place in 2022. The main has had “multiple breaks in the past due to corrosive soils,” according to Lodge, with a replacement pipe providing “a long-term solution to address the reliability of the watermain distribution system.” Originally planned for 2018, the project was delayed after wetlands were identified, requiring a mitigation strategy. State requirements for more detailed soil analysis and then the pandemic further delayed the project, according to Lodge. The project design has since been finalized and submitted for state permitting; Lodge says the city anticipates bidding out the project in January and completing the work by Labor Day.

MDOT, which has recently held public input sessions to discuss preliminary design plans for the complete reconstruction of Grandview Parkway between Garfield Avenue and Division Street in 2023, will give commissioners a detailed look at that project tonight. Initial design plans have continued to be refined since the state first announced the $22 million project, with intersection enhancements, stormwater upgrades, signal adjustments, utility improvements, sidewalk widening, pedestrian crossings, the potential expansion of the TART Trail, and signing and pavement markings all included in the project.

Design images released by MDOT for tonight's commission meeting show that several key intersections will be expanded to five or six lanes, and/or offer new designated turn lanes, such as at Division/Bay streets, Hall Street, Union Street, Park Street, Front Street, and Peninsula Drive. The project will be tackled in two segments, with the first segment taking place between Garfield and Front. That phase will require traffic to detour into downtown using Eighth Street and Railroad Avenue, with Old Mission Peninsula traffic using Milliken Drive to get to the detour.

MDOT also provided a sneak peek of planned construction projects for the next three years, with total investment estimated at $51.3 million. Major work planned between 2022 and 2025 includes (pictured, map):

> 2022: US-31/M-72 Holiday to Five Mile, Median Construction, $2 million
> 2022: Peninsula Drive/M-37/Center Road to End, Mill and Resurface and Ultra Thin Overlay, $3.3 Million
> 2023: Grandview Parkway Reconstruction, $22 Million
> 2023: US-31/South Airport to US-31/M-72, Mill and Resurface, $2 million
> 2023: M-72/M-22 to Bugai, Mill and Resurface, $1.5 million
> 2024: M-72/Division to M-22, Reconstruct, $8 million
> 2024: M-22/M-72 to Cherry Bend Road, Reconstruct, $9 million
> 2025: US-31/Tenth to Front, Widening for Left Turn and Median, $3.5 million

More details – including construction timelines, design plans, and traffic/detour impacts – are expected to be released as each individual project approaches.