Muskegon, Webster to return to 2-way residential streets

September 30, 2007
By Robert C. Burns
Muskegon Chronicle

Muskegon and Webster avenues have carried traffic through downtown Muskegon as four-lane freeways since the late 1950s.

But after Shoreline Drive was designated as the downtown's new U.S. 31 business route on July 5, there no longer was a need for a four-lane freeway through a mostly residential area of Muskegon.

Monday marks the beginning of the final stage to return the two thoroughfares to their original state as ordinary residential streets.

Workers already can be seen spray-painting pink markings on pavement and sidewalks and driving stakes along the terraces of the two thoroughfares. A flashing temporary sign at Seaway and Hackley advises motorists of what's to come -- lane closures and slowdowns beginning Monday.

By the time the project is finished in mid-November, traffic on both streets will be flowing in both directions instead of just one way, from Ninth Street to Spring Street. And long-banned curbside parking on both sides of the street will return to most of that 12-block section.

New traffic signals also will be added on Muskegon and Webster at Seventh Street.

The purpose of the new Seventh Street signals is two-fold, says City Engineer Mohammed Al-Shatel: to slow incoming traffic on Muskegon Avenue as a transition to the residential area, and to help provide quicker access from that part of downtown to Shoreline Drive.

The Grand Rapids engineering firm WadeTrim was hired by the city in late June to tackle the tricky task of funneling four lanes of fast-moving traffic down to a single lane.

Strain Electric of Grand Rapids will work over the next few weeks to make it all happen. Its work will involve the addition of solid yellow lines, new turn lanes, and traffic signals altered to include turning arrows, plus many new signs and pavement markings.

All of which, city officials hope, will be absorbed quickly by the motoring public.

City officials also hope that those who are simply traveling through the downtown to get from Point A to Point B will discover that it is much easier to use the Shoreline Drive route.

After all, that's what it was built for.

As the project nears completion, Webster Avenue will be completely closed for 48 hours so that new signs can be placed and pavement markings drawn before it reopens as a two-way street. Traffic will be detoured through Shoreline Drive.

After that, Muskegon Avenue will undergo the same treatment -- at which point Webster Avenue resident Terry MacAllister might be heard "shrieking like a banshee."

For MacAllister, the change has been a long time coming.

More than five years ago, he and a few of his neighbors formed what they called the "Turnback Committee." They did so after learning that city officials had no special plans to do anything different with Muskegon and Webster avenues, other than to monitor traffic.

"I realized we were going to do something to change that attitude," MacAllister said.

Downtown institutions, such as Hackley Public Library, the Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon Public Schools, churches, banks and other businesses and residents were enlisted.

Two surveys were conducted. They first used petitions to sample the residential area between Fourth and Ninth streets. MacAllister said it attracted 73 signers in favor of two-way traffic with on-street parking, and only a couple who disagreed with the addition of parking.

About a year and a half ago, businesses in the district east of Fourth Street were surveyed by the Turnback group.

"The banks were cool, since both Huntington and Fifth Third banks were part of the committee," MacAllister said

McDonald's and Burger King, on Muskegon Avenue near Terrace Street, depend heavily on passing traffic. Arthur Scott, who owns the McDonald's, figures the transfer will be a boon because customers will be approaching from two directions instead of one, and he has substantially upgraded the restaurant in preparation for it.

"We think it will make a tremendous difference," he said. "To navigate in and out is a little tough. We think this will give us an opportunity to serve more customers."

A corporate spokesman at Lemmen Oil Co., owner of the Shell Mart, 275 W. Muskegon, said he didn't know whether the change would hurt or help.

"We're not sure what it's going to do," he said. "It's not a high-volume station for us to begin with."

Various city departments have argued against turning Muskegon and Webster back to two-way residential streets with parking, mainly because of the need to move emergency vehicles and to facilitate snowplowing.

The Turnback Committee's dealings with City Hall might not be over yet.

That's because, although the new traffic signals at Seventh Street will help, the rest of the signals will continue to be synchronized, and there is no plan to lower speed limits -- at least for now.

"We don't want to impede people coming into the downtown," MacAllister said. "What we don't want is for it to be the thoroughfare through town that it's been all these years."

City Engineer Mohammed Al-Shatel says the question of revising speed limits would be decided once the conversion is complete and city officials have had a chance to observe traffic patterns and motorists' behavior on the new two-way streets.

The change to two-way traffic could be a challenge, if history is any guide. In August, 1950, Webster was one-way westbound, as it is today. It was widened between Terrace and First streets to accommodate two-way traffic.

That lasted a little over a month. City officials changed the street back to one-way traffic after people at St. Mary's Church complained that children were used to looking in one direction before crossing the street from the church parking lot.

Longtime observers, like former Muskegon mayor Fred Nielsen say the new highway was OK with most folks at the time, but "we had a lot less traffic back then."

For Paul and Kit Veltkamp, who live on Muskegon near Ninth Street, incoming motorists have occasionally lost control and landed in their yard.

Life will soon change for the Veltkamps, who have tried for years to get speed levels reduced on their street.

"For one thing, we'll be able to talk to each other in the yard at a distance greater than five feet," he said.

Veltkamp, an environmental planner who once served on the city's planning commission, said he senses not everyone will be happy with the changeover, especially those who are accustomed to blasting through town.

"That's a selfish view -- 'Just give me back my racetrack and the hell with you people,' " he said. "But what about us?"