The Berrien County Road Department has held a public meeting to tell Bridgman and Lake Township residents about plans to reconstruct Red Arrow Highway from the Bridgman city limits to about a thousand feet south of the Cook plant this year, and it’s heard an earful.
At Thursday’s session held at the Lake Township Hall, road department engineer Kevin Stack said work will begin August 4 and wrap up in mid-November. The biggest issue for residents in attendance is the lane reduction being given to the road as Stack said when all is done, it will have one lane of travel in each direction with a center turn lane, just as has been done to Red Arrow Highway in South County.
Michelle Runser lives on Red Arrow Highway and told us having fewer lanes will make travel more difficult. She’s seen that elsewhere.
“I also work in Benton Harbor and I travel Napier, which was on a road diet, and it’s terrible,” Runser said. “It’s terrible. You’ve got people passing in the left, people passing in the right, and people trying to beat each other off the stoplight, which makes nothing but road rage.”
Runser said she’s also concerned about emergency traffic from I-94 snarling things up even more when there’s a problem on the highway.
Stack told us all the studies show there will be fewer crashes with fewer lanes on Red Arrow Highway, something the road department has seen in South County since that section was rebuilt. He asked people to trust the engineers.
“We look at the design of the road, we look at the data, we look at the safety, we project it out over 20 years,” Stack said. “What can we do over the next 20 years to improve the safety of this road, improve traffic flow, improve the actual maintenance of the road? It’s tough to maintain four lanes of roadway.”
Stack said he remembers a similar meeting in Chikaming Township about eight years ago when the department talked about a lane reduction planned there, but now no one’s complaining. He asked those with concerns about this project to stay in contact with the road department and check back in about a year after the work is finished. He thinks many will change their minds.
During the construction this year, Stack said one lane of travel will be maintained in each direction on Red Arrow Highway.
Next year, they’ll rebuild the road from south of the Cook plant to Stevensville and add a trail along the side.
