Major Road Closures Happening Around Center City

The City of East Lansing is advising motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians that major road closures are occuring for the Center City District project. The most significant will be the closure of two of the three westbound lanes of Grand River Avenue for about a month in the area of the project.

Tom Fehrenbach, Community & Economic Development Administrator for East Lansing, informed the Downtown Development Authority on June 28 of the Grand River Avenue closures to take place between M.A.C. Avenue and Abbot Road, starting Thursday, July 5.

That’s in order to do underground utility work for the project. The expectation is that the Grand River Avenue lane closures will last “about a month,” according to Fehrenbach. The disruption to traffic flow downtown is expected to be significant.

The Grand River Avenue sidewalk between the project and the street will also be closed.

On the west side of the project, on Monday, July 2, Abbot Road was completely closed between Grand River Avenue and Albert Avenue, for several hours. That was in order to conduct paving of the roadway.

Albert Avenue has now been reopened completely to westbound traffic, as has the sidewalk on the north side. The sidewalk there has been widened by a couple of feet. Abbot Road is also completely open again.

Saginaw Street is currently under construction as well, and will be through October. Mayor Mark Meadows told the Council of Neighborhood Presidents at its last meeting, “This is a city of reconstruction at this point. It is not going to be easy to get around for a while.”

See ELi’s complete reporting on the Center City District project.

This article was updated at 8 a.m. on Thursday, July 5, with the lastest information from the City of East Lansing.