Ask ELi: What’s Happening on Alton Road?

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Thursday, September 27, 2018, 8:32 am
By: 
Alice Dreger

An ELi reader wrote in to ask: “The work on Alton Road seems to be delayed. I heard there seems to be a labor strike of some kind. Do you know what is going on?”

We put our reader’s question to Scott House, East Lansing’s Director of Public Works, the division of the City of East Lansing overseeing the project.

House confirmed that the issue is a strike by heavy equipment operators, specifically by members of the International Union of Operating Engineers 324, plus a lock-out initiated by the Michigan Infrastructure and Transportation Association (MITA), a trade association of road construction companies.

The union and the construction companies are arguing over contract terms. Union reps actually question the characterization as “a strike,” saying that the problem is the lack of a contract.

House tells ELi, “This has impacted projects statewide as the two sides negotiate.”

Michigan Radio reported last week that the issue has been going on since early September and that “Governor Rick Snyder’s office may ask the National Guard to finish roadwork that’s been halted.”

Says House, “We are in constant contact with MDOT, seeking updates, as this project was let through their local agency program.”

Right now, Alton Road is thoroughly torn up and riddled with potholes. The street is closed to through traffic, and there are numbers of barriers and construction barrels, portable toilets, and mounds of construction materials, making it an aesthetic mess and a serious challenge for residents and people trying to get to and from St. Thomas Church and school and Patriarche Park.

House told the Council of Neighborhood Presidents on Monday night that if work is not resumed soon, the area will have to be stabilized for winter – meaning that work would not be finished until the cold weather is over. Winter presents inopportune weather for major road work, which is why most road work is done during the summer in Michigan.

 

 

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