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NILES — A set of planned street project aim to make travel easier for Niles community members.

The Michigan Department of Transportation has announced its 2024 construction plans for the Niles area, according to Niles Mayor Nick Shelton.

On his official Facebook page, Shelton listed the planned projects set to be carried out by MDOT in 2024:

• M-51at Fort Street: The existing overhead flashers will be removed to make way for a traffic signal to address access to M-51 from the Fort Street approaches, and a higher rate of injuries caused by high-speed angle crashes.
• US-12 at Third Street: The intersection and its signal equipment will be reconfigured to eliminate direct left turns from all approaches, utilizing median crossovers east and west of the intersection. The change is in response to and in conjunction with, the local commercial vehicle sites along Third Street to address an increased number of trucks and the safety of all motorists in the area. The existing signal equipment for the Indiana-Michigan River Valley non-motorized Trail will remain but adjusted for the intersection modification.
• M-51 at US-12: The removal of the twin US-12 bridges over M-51 will create the subject at-grade intersection. Similar to the Third Street intersection, this location will not allow direct left turns from all approaches and require the use of median crossovers.
• Median crossover for westbound US-12; east of Third Street, west of M-51: With the reconfiguration of the Third Street intersection, the number of commercial vehicles needing to travel westbound US-12 to return to the US-31 freeway requires a signal to create an appropriate gap in traffic to allow these vehicles to enter the westbound traffic stream.
• M-51 (S. 11th Street) north of US-12 to Main Street is scheduled for resurfacing along with this project.
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  This is a developing story. Leaderpub.com will be updated as more information becomes available.