TRAVERSE CITY — Some good news as the disruptive construction project on the main artery in the downtown area of Traverse City is making some major progress.
Stage one of phase one of the Grandview Parkway/Front Street construction project in Traverse City is almost complete.
The popular route that has more than 30,000 people driving through on any given day is getting a major overhaul for the first time since 1956 to the tune of $24.7 million.
The construction that started back in March has been disruptive to drivers and impacted area businesses along the way, keeping foot traffic away as people try to avoid the area.
Team Elmer’s project manager Nick Broad said the company has been working hard since March 10th.
“We’re just starting to get to the asphalt paving on the first phase right now. And unfortunately, you have to build it almost like layers on a cake. You got to start at the bottom and work your way up. With this particular cake, there’s a lot of layers. So we’re just finally putting the icing on right now,” said Broad.
His crews are responsible for everything from the ground down, including storm, sewer, water upgrades, all the things you don’t see that helps make daily life happen.
“You don’t see 90% of the work that gets done. So if you’ve driven by lately, you’ve seen a lot of excavator swinging for the last several weeks. What they’re doing is putting pipes in the ground, and it’s all, all stuff that you don’t see at the end,” said Broad.
He said so far things are right on track. The company doesn’t get any bonuses for finishing early but they face a $48,000 penalty, if they don’t finish on time.
Broad said luckily the mild weather has helped them stay on schedule.
“It was a very aggressive schedule from the start. This is a critical corridor in the Traverse City area. So, it was very important for them to build into the contracts and deadlines that were very tight. So especially given the volume of work here, there was a lot to do in a very short period of time,” said Broad.
Traverse city’s assistant construction engineer with the Michigan Department of Transportation, Melzar Coutler, said they are very pleased with the work Elmer’s has done and now that the pavement is starting to go down, MDOT hopes they will be able to open up traffic on the south side of US 31-switching traffic to the south side.
The Garfiled Avenue intersection will also open except for Westbound 31.
“That’s going to improve a lot of the traffic situations that folks have had, particularly around the high school and getting through Eastern and Milliken in that area. And then we’ll begin phase two, which is then reconstructing the north half of US 31, East of downtown,” said Melzar.
For businesses like nature retail store, Wild Bird Unlimited, they have been impacted by the construction. Store manager, Tree Chitwood said they started diversifying and doing more deliveries to see them through.
They said they are looking forward to the nearby road opening up again.
“Wrapping packages and shipping. It’s not a problem, but I like dealing with people face to face. So I’ll be happy to have some of our customers come back in [to] the store,” said Chitwood.
They hope to have phase one completed before the national cherry festival starts. Melzar said that they’re giving the city a break before they start phase two.