NILES TOWNSHIP — On Monday night, the Niles Township board of trustees discussed options for overhauling the U.S. 12/M-51 bridge. The discussion follows two public hearings hosted by the Michigan Department of Transportation to solicit feedback for replacing the aging infrastructure.

Trustee Richard Cooper asked the board to express thoughts on the alternative that is proposing removing the bridge and installing two traffic lights at the intersection. This particular alternative would make use of indirect left turns, otherwise known as the Michigan left.

He said should the board wish to share their thoughts, they could create a resolution and send it to MDOT. Board members discussed the item but did not issue a resolution.

“We heard a lot of negative in the meetings … in regard to the truck traffic that comes down Third Street and comes to 12,” Cooper said. “With the new one, they are going to use the Michigan turnaround.”

Many drivers at the public meeting expressed concerns about the indirect lefts potentially slowing down traffic, due to the high volume of trucks that traverse the highways.

In a follow-up interview Tuesday, Kyle Rudlaff, MDOT project manager, said officials are “leaning toward” the traffic lights and indirect left alternative as the best option, though he emphasized that an official decision has not been made.

Rudlaff said the safety features of the option, brought it to the top of the pack.

“[As it is now], a driver has to pick a gap in a fast-moving traffic stream,” Rudlaff said. “The new one will have an ‘it’s your turn to go now.’”

When asked about the feedback from commercial truckers, Rudlaff said they had been taken into consideration. He described how MDOT officials analyzed the number of trucks and automobile traffic that would be utilizing the highways. What they found was that truck traffic and automobile peak traffic times do not coincide, with truck traffic being later in the afternoon and automobile traffic highest in the morning. As far as the number of trucks traveling the highways, Rudlaff said at peak hour, there were 34 trucks. While he described that as a “respectable volume,” he said it is still within the capacity for the indirect left turn lanes to accommodate. 

The traffic lights and the indirect left option would cost about $8 million, though Rudlaff said this is a very low projection that does not include inflation costs.

Trustees seemed mainly to have faith in MDOT to pick a safe and efficient plan.

Trustee Jim Ringler said that he liked the indirect left option and had attended the last public hearing.

“For those that say ‘the Michigan turnarounds don’t work,’ I don’t think an engineer would put that out there if it didn’t work,” Ringler said. “All those trucks do [a Michigan left] on Mayflower Road and they don’t seem to have a problem.”

While MDOT does not plan to host any more public meetings, Rudlaff said community members are still welcome to submit feedback for consideration. They can do so by contacting him at (269) 337-3928 or rudlaffk@michigan.gov.