The City of Grand Rapids and Grand Valley State University are looking for your input on a street closure near Fulton Avenue. A survey is now available online.
“With the campus continuing to develop downtown, we want to make sure we’re meeting both pedestrian and bicycle needs of the campus as well as a circulating network for the public as well.”
That’s Chris Zull, Traffic Safety Manager with City of Grand Rapids explaining why they wanted to study the closure of the intersection of Mt. Vernon Southwest at Fulton.
Barricades went up and they closed that intersection back in December and the study by the City of Grand Rapids and Grand Valley State University was underway.
“We have been learning quite a bit along the way. The resulting path through this area with Winter or Seward and become more pronounced and we continue to watch the traffic patterns change with this link being taken out of the network.”
The City and GVSU expect to make an announcement this summer as it relates to the closure. But they’re looking for help from the community through an online survey. The question: should it remain closed or reopen?
“So we did get a few emails and phone calls here and there. But we wanted to get a uniformed response from as many people as we possible could and that’s why we generated the survey and have been pushing that trying to get as many people as we can to respond.”
If the closure remains, the city would install a more permanent barrier in the future. It might coordinate with the Laker Line. The study results will also help inform future campus planning and transportation decisions. Zull says they have a lot to consider and expect the public input to help. The survey is available online at grandrapidsmi.gov/mtvernonclosure until June 15th. He adds they expect to have a decision before school resumes in the fall, but not necessarily any permanent solution installed.
