Downtown cross streets open

October 19, 2007
By Robert C. Burns
Muskegon Chronicle

If you haven't driven in downtown Muskegon lately, you're in for an unusual experience.

The Western Avenue cross streets of Second, First, Jefferson and Market are now open to vehicle traffic again for the first time since the city's former downtown mall was built in the mid-1970s.

Since January, downtown drivers have been able to traverse the main east-west artery of Western Avenue in the four blocks between Third and Terrace streets.

But that section of Western has been a "limited access" boulevard without the benefit of intersecting streets by which to access either Morris Street or Clay Avenue.

All that changed Wednesday when the city of Muskegon's contractor wrapped up its repaving work and removed the last of the street barriers.

The newly opened streets feature the same decorative sidewalks, street lights and wrought-iron benches as the new Western Avenue.

Motorists, who are by now accustomed to driving down Western Avenue and negotiating the traffic circle at Western and Third, cautiously ventured down the side streets Wednesday, as though they were trying to find their way through an unfamiliar city.

"I think it looks good, but we'll have to see if we need to make any adjustments with signals down the road," said City Manager Bryon Mazade.

First Street will be watched closely because it makes a direct connection with Shoreline Drive, he said.

The return to the street grid system that characterized Muskegon's old central business district has been a top priority of city officials.

Those streets disappeared under what became the Muskegon Mall along Western Avenue and its paved parking areas.

The mall opened in 1976 and closed in 2002, after which the 23-acre site was acquired by Downtown Muskegon Development Corp., which tore down most of the mall buildings to make way for new downtown development.

Motorists still may have to dodge some temporary underground work to be done by Verizon at the Jefferson-Clay intersection.