This is just a reminder that the Michigan Department of Transportation will hold an open house on the downtown St. Joseph Main Street reconstruction project Monday.
MDOT’s Nick Schirripa tells us the plan for exactly how things will be changed when the project is undertaken in 2027 is still coming together. After multiple meetings with residents so far, MDOT’s coming back to show everyone the latest.
“Presenting them with essentially a finalized design concept,” Schirripa said. “We’re breaking that into several steps, so instead of coming back with a final design concept, we’re coming back kind of intermittently with updated design concepts, and that’s where we are now.”
Schirripa says residents have shown a great interest in the project throughout the planning stage. It’s not surprising, given that this is a once in a generation rebuild of a town’s Main Street.
“We’re working through people’s business community, people’s living community. So this is a little bit different for us. And it’s a pretty big project. We don’t do very many redesigns or rebuilds, and this is one of those. So there are a couple of things that kind of come together to make this a generational project.”
MDOT staff will be at St. Joseph City Hall Monday from 4:30 to 6:30 to talk with residents about the latest.
Right now, Schirripa says the plan is to rebuild the M-63/I-94 Business Loop and change Port Street and Ship Street to two-way streets. They’re one-way now.
Also, with paid parking now in effect downtown, Schirripa says there will be improvements to pedestrian crossings. However, he says the paid parking has nothing to do with MDOT. That was strictly a city decision.
