The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) will be improving a local stretch of M-59 with the addition of a center turn lane.

The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is planning left turn lane construction along M-59, and the Department will perform additional work for and on behalf of Hartland Township in connection with the improvement efforts. MDOT is constructing a pathway on the south side of M-59 from approximately 250 feet west of Hartland Woods Drive, to easterly approximately 700 feet to the existing pathway at the Oakbrooke property. The proposed sidewalk has been included in the 2020 M-59 road project and will be constructed at no cost to the Township.

Township officials on Tuesday discussed an agreement which specifies that the municipality will assume all ownership, responsibility and liability for the sidewalk upon the project’s completion by MDOT. The municipality’s Board of Trustees voted unanimously to approve the agreement for the proposed pathway as presented. Township Manager James Wickman says that MDOT will be carrying out safety improvements along M-59 and that it is usually the Department’s practice when they’re doing a project to search for other ways to add extra benefit to the community.

Wickman says in this case, M-59 had an empty gap of sidewalks in Hartland Township and MDOT proposed including that in the project as an add-on. He tells WHMI that MDOT’s M-59 pathway project is focused on a stretch between Cullen Road and the Hartland Educational Support Services Center, which is the location of Hartland’s old high school. MDOT wants to improve the section of roadway that includes a passing lane on the westbound side with the implementation of a center turn lane. Wickman says a number of left turns are made westbound to the south side of M-59 and that drivers trying to pass on the right have led to some unfavorable accident numbers, prompting the improvement work.

An official schedule for the project has not yet been set. (DK)