Raildudes dad

The Van Andel and the hospital sure do not complement each other architecturally. And, the new sky walk is between the other two so you really can't see it from a distance. I want to reserve opinion until it's skinned and finished but right now I'm thinking it isn't going to meet my architectural expectations

Not true, the "cosmetic" work was joint repair east of Fuller. That segment won't get rebuilt until the interchange at I- 96 / EBL is reconfigured. Anything west of Fuller was "band aid" until this year. Interesting fact - I-96 from the River east to College was designed in 1961 with a design Average Daily Traffic projected for 1975 at 20,800 vehicles per day. The latest count on the MDOT site is 63,700 vehicles per day. The roadway is handling 3 times it's design volume. I suspect that' why there might be some congestion at rush hour.

Douma's Art Supply

They are only doing from the Grand River to and including the Fuller interchange. I'll have to check the plans for more details.

according to my informed source Last I heard it was going to be a full closure when they really get going on the reconstruct. Any more questions, I can probably get the answers

According to one of the design engineers I know, what you are seeing is the beginning of construction of the wall to allow for the adding of the 3rd lane. The equipment looks like drilled shaft equipment as I rolled by at 55 . What you see at Eastern Ave looks like a temporary support structure for a utility (telephone?) to allow the replacement of the existing bridge.

Every day is an adventure with Mr Benner, and it will go on and on and on..........

The eminent domain law give GVSU the right to aquire the land and requires him to sell to them. The court will decide if their offer is fair market value and require them to pay the fair market value.

Eminent domain is the only choice GVSU has when they have an unwilling seller. They own all the way around that parcel, makes some sense to me. DeVries can cry all he wants but the court will decide fair market value. Both sides present their appraisals and appraisers and the court will decide.He will come out alright financially, I can just about guarantee that. I've used it several times and that location works quite well. Signal timing is about right to get some good sized gaps during the day anyways. Don't know about rush hour.

A good inexpensive solution that will work

Flashing yellow w/ red on demand is a recipe for disaster. I drove thru the one on Alpine in front of the old Lear ex GM plant for years. Regular users get used to flashing yellow and do not see it when it turns red. Been there done that . Strangers see it turn red, stop and get rear ended. Watched that happen several times. Watched semi's get surpised by the red and slide thru the red w/ all the tires locked up, not good. Continous green until turned red on demand solves those problems. That's what currently is on Alpine. No incidents since the full time green has been there.

My employer (a gov't agency) will sometimes file for eminent domain even if they expect negotiations to be sucessful. If negotiations break down for some reason, the time line for eminent domain is pretty long if you want to keep a project on track. We notify the owner we are filing and the reason for the filing. If they contest the "necsssity of the taking", that would enter another twist into the proceedings. Most of the time the owner doesn't contest the necessity of the project, just the compesation offered. All the court decides then is the "just compensation". In my 38 years with my employer, I can only rememeber 2 cases where the owner contested necessity, all the rest of the times, it was all about the money

Waldorf east of walker Ave, south of 3 Mile Road. It's been there several years. In prior years, it was in a building north off Waldorf.

I think they want to buy out Mr DeVries so they can own all the property in the area. I'm guessing He wants to be a partner so he can get the work of redeveloping the building.

Someone needs to tell the person doing the signage that white letters on green is the highway convention for directional signs and white on a red background signifies "Stop" or emergency. Also, don't cram 14 lines of words on one sign, the font is too small and a driver has just about stop to read the sign . The signing during the construction project has been atrocious and confusing.

Somebody got something wrong. The cell tower building is the old A&P warehouse. The Dewitt buildings have been replaced with a parking lot some time ago.

Chase Bank (SE corner of the intersection) is in the township, the other 3 corners are in the City of GR. The Township Hall / park south of the bank have walking paths. I believe the new courthouse will be adding walk paths to the rear / east , not sure about what's going to happen at the bank.

Apparently "Suze" doesn't know the difference between an air carrier and an airline route

I have been involved with several of his projects with my employer. I would agree with the words in red. "Talk is cheap" comes to mind .

Anyone remember Heritage Landing in Muskegon or Union Terminal in Cincinnati? Same concept, however once the novelty wore off, both places turned into ghost towns.

Neither Varga nor KCFFR give the voters credit for common sense. Too many $$$(regardless of where they were coming from) for questionable benefit.

Due to lack of demand. Veloise - Thanks for picking this factoid out of the other poster's comments on everything I'm pretty sure the G2 report said the same thing.

The freeway won't go more than 3 lanes except for some areas where a 4th weave merge lane makes sense ( 131 North of Ann and South of West River). There just isn't the funding available and there are Right of way constraints. Like I said, we have a pretty good bus system. I wouldn't have any problem with a decent millage to boost frequency system wide during rush hours or even later hours. I don't think the Rapid would have any trouble getting that approved.

There's an need in Salt Lake City. I-15 is really congested because it's the only N-S freeway and Salt Lake City metro area is oriented n-s along I-15 between the mountains on one side and Salt Lake and the desert on the other. GR is blessed or cursed depending on your viewpoint with freeways in all directions and the downtown is bisected w/ freeways. Currently there's only 1 congested corridor and that's US 131 north. (Sorry aowwt , 131 south isn't congested unless there's an accident or lane restrictions due to construction, Traffic runs at or near the speed limit most of the time even at "rush hour"). After Nashville's experience with rail on an existing corridor I have doubts that it would succeed in GR. Nashville used existing rail, refurbished "used" equipment and simple inexpensive "stations". Ridership isn't near projections and there was some talk about them having to repay the federal funds. Until congestion increases and / or inexpensive parking disappears from downtown, I don't think we'll get enough folks out of their cars even w/ $5 gas. IMHO, the defeat of the Silver Line isn't the end of the world. We have a pretty good mass transit system in The Rapid. The reasons and arguments for the BRT didn't convince me that it should be constructed even if it was supposed to cost me only a few $$ / month.

Ditto for me too