Construction season meets football season near the Big House this weekend
Football season starts this year before all of summer’s road work has come to an end, which could make navigating Ann Arbor on game days trickier for motorists.
Some ongoing construction and closures to be aware of include the 300 block of South Fifth Avenue in downtown Ann Arbor, which is closed until next year; the East Stadium bridges lane closures, and the reconstruction of West Stadium Boulevard from Suffolk Avenue to Hutchins Avenue.
View a map of road work in Ann Arbor here.
Road construction could thwart game-day traffic headed to Michigan Stadium using South Fifth Avenue.
File photo
Homayoon Pirooz, manager of project management for the city of Ann Arbor, said he doesn't expect construction projects and lane closures to pose much of a problem for game- day traffic.
“All of this construction and changes in traffic lanes does have some impact, but I wouldn’t call them a problem,” Pirooz said. “If it was a work day, a business day, I would say yes.”
Pirooz said while motorists will have to deal with some lane and road closures, actual construction workers and their equipment won't be part of the equation Saturday.
“When the lanes are open and there’s construction just a few feet away, that always has an impact on traffic … but we don’t have that on Saturdays,” he said.
Julie Weatherbee, who lives two blocks away from the Michigan Stadium, has learned to deal with game-day traffic - construction or no construction.
“We pretty much walk everywhere we go, so for us it’s not much of an issue,” said Weatherbee, who said she attends football games on occasion. “We’re two blocks from the stadium, so we’ll get the same traffic (as usual).”
When asked whether she thought the ongoing road work on top of the typical football traffic would put a crimp in her day, Weatherbee said, “It didn’t last year, and there was more construction.”
Michael Beaton plans to leave his home in Grosse Pointe Woods about 11 a.m. Saturday to make it to Ann Arbor by about 12:30 p.m. — a few hours before the game starts.
“Definitely going this weekend,” said Beaton. “In the past I’ve gotten there an hour to an hour-and-a-half early.”
Beaton said he plans to give himself extra time to get to the stadium, not necessarily because of construction-related traffic, but because “it’s a rededication game, and it’s the first game in the renovated stadium.”
And recent construction at Ann Arbor Pioneer High School won’t halt game day parking there.
Liz Margolis, spokeswoman for Ann Arbor Public Schools, said parking will be available at the high school this year, despite work done on its grounds.
General parking at Ann Arbor Pioneer High School will cost $35 per vehicle and is provided through University of Michigan event parking. And as in years past, the school will accommodate as many as 5,000 vehicles.
“We usually fill it every game,” she said. “We did plan this construction schedule so the ground would be firm enough, and the grass would be developed enough that we could park over those areas.”
Beaton said a certain amount of traffic is to be expected on football Saturdays.
“Traffic is normally OK. It’s a necessary evil,” he said. “If you want to have 100,000 people, you’re going to have some sort of traffic.”
Heather Lockwood is a reporter for AnnArbor.com, reach her at heatherlockwood@annarbor.com, or follow her on Twitter.
Comments
SonnyDog09
Fri, Sep 3, 2010 : 11:30 a.m.
Will US23 have a lane shut down over the weekend, too? That would back things up before folks even get in to the city.
breadman
Thu, Sep 2, 2010 : 9:26 p.m.
Brian! I agree, I live just around the corner from you on Dexter. So does that mean to get to K-Mart on Maple we best put on our jogging shoes and run through vet's Park to get there faster? Maple can become a mess but with stadium the shut downs, they did not think of the feed in to the foot ball stadium.
Jeff Gaynor
Thu, Sep 2, 2010 : 8:59 p.m.
Better choice -- head the other way to WEMU (wemu.org) to catch the shuttle to the Detroit Jazz Festival.
brian
Thu, Sep 2, 2010 : 4:18 p.m.
This is going to be great. I live on N Maple and there are always lines of cars stopped in front of my house coming from 14 trying to get to the game. And that is a couple miles away. I can't imagine how bad it will be with the construction. The detour has people going that way turn right on Pauline/left on Maple/left on Scio/Left on Main/ to Stadium. That route is going to be horrible. Not to mention that a lot of people turn left on Pauline off Stadium and that turn lane currently only handles maybe 5 cars before it backs them into the lane that allows people to turn right on Pauline. Unless they do something different there by Saturday I don't see how this won't be a "problem".
Haran Rashes
Thu, Sep 2, 2010 : 2:01 p.m.
The article missed the construction on Plymouth Road. Most evenings, it takes me 20 to 30 minutes to exit US-23 Southbound to Westbound Plymouth Road because of this bottleneck. Unless they expect to work through the night tonight and tomorrow, it will only be worse on Gameday!
Speechless
Thu, Sep 2, 2010 : 12:09 p.m.
Why not organize a very large-scale Park & Ride where lots of fans — whether driving in from Barton Pond, Farmington Hills, Grosse Pointe or wherever — just pull over into a big lot off Jackson Rd., Briarwood or Dixboro Rd. From there, have them shuttle to drop-off points near The House on The Ride or, better yet, inside those blue & maize UM buses. If it's good enough for art fair week in July, then it's good enough for UM football. As it its, you can't carry much of anything into the stadium anyhow.
EDM450
Thu, Sep 2, 2010 : 11:23 a.m.
Well once again the city government has taken there time to get the ball rolling on getting the road work begun. As I remember Stadium was started kinda late this summer. So now AAPD, U of M, WCSD,and MSP are all going to have to work some kind of miracle to get this to all work out using most Main St. Well they are pretty top notch and can get the people in and out fast but it's the ones who have no clue that this construction is going on, you know, the away team people! who are going to get stung. Some may so what. Well that's still Big dollars rolling into this town every Saturday.
grye
Thu, Sep 2, 2010 : 9:43 a.m.
Plymouth Road, Geddes Road. Both bottled up with construction. Washtenaw has already been a parking lot. Might have to leave a couple of more hours early to get to the stadium. Anyone thought about parachuting in? Could be the quickest way. Can't believe the city didn't consider having these projects completed prior to the first game. Optimal planning as always.
pippi22
Thu, Sep 2, 2010 : 9:10 a.m.
What about the mess on Plymouth Rd.???
Forever27
Thu, Sep 2, 2010 : 8:27 a.m.
@brad, lol i thought the same thing.
a2roots
Thu, Sep 2, 2010 : 8:26 a.m.
@brad...the other way, West Stadium Blvd. Then again the plans are not set for the bridge yet. one can only wonder.
Brad
Thu, Sep 2, 2010 : 8:23 a.m.
A "center turn lane" on the Stadium bridge? Turn to *where*?
a2roots
Thu, Sep 2, 2010 : 8:16 a.m.
@jcj...Stadium Blvd. will be just as bad when finished if the city goes through with the plan for one lane of traffic each way with a center turn lane and bike lanes. New road will be great but traffic mess with this alignment will be a nightmare before and after all events at the Stadium, Crisler and Pioneer.
Steve Pepple
Thu, Sep 2, 2010 : 7:47 a.m.
A comment was removed because of name-calling.
Forever27
Thu, Sep 2, 2010 : 7:41 a.m.
@InsidetheHall, he's too busy fixing the even bigger messes that he inherited. The city is at fault with the bridge, Obama has nothing to do with that. But hey, nothing ever stopped people from throwing non sequiturs into the political debate before, why change that now?
jcj
Thu, Sep 2, 2010 : 6:40 a.m.
Talk about putting a spin on this. Homayoon Pirooz would make somebody a good campaign manager! Just watch the backup on east bound Stadium when those unsuspecting drivers try to go that way. It will be backed up all the way to M-14!
InsideTheHall
Thu, Sep 2, 2010 : 6:31 a.m.
Fix the dang bridge. Where is the friend of Ann Arbor and the University Obama when they need him with his handful of treasure to fix the dang bridge?????
breadman
Thu, Sep 2, 2010 : 5:43 a.m.
Nice! Ann Arbor's second season! Oops! I mean Michigan second season.... Watch out residents on back streets. These people in cars are going to try and cut through. Keep a close on your Child(ren) at play.