The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) has an updated plan to upgrade two miles of Michigan Avenue in Corktown after a previous version was met with opposition.
Last Wednesday, April 16, MDOT officials updated the public about the plan that includes limiting the thoroughfare between Interstate 96 and Woodward to allow for two lanes of traffic in each direction, and to offer safer pedestrian crossings, limiting left turns and reducing traffic speeds.
The previous version of the plan eliminated parking spots, limited traffic on Michigan Avenue in the project area to one lane in each direction, greatly extended sidewalks and severely limited left hand turns.
The project will cost between $70 and $80 million depending on the final design and the bidding process for contractors to complete the project, MDOT spokesman Rob Morosi said.
“The community really wants a main street and not an alternative route to get to a freeway,” Morosi said. “It can’t be about infrastructure improvements. It has to be about how the community can use those improvements.”
MDOT has a $25 million federal grant under review and is awaiting final word the money has been approved. The grant is a third of the project’s funding, but Morosi said MDOT will find funding for the project, even if the grant is not awarded.
Sheila Cockrel, a board member of the Corktown Business Association, said she appreciates that community input was incorporated, but more is needed.
The Corktown Business Association will meet with MDOT next week to discuss the project and address concerns about parking, that the project limits left turns and how that will affect neighborhoods and ways to ensure that it is not so difficult to get around that visitors to sporting events opt to skip hanging out in Corktown before or after games, said Cockrel, who is a Corktown native and a former Detroit City Council member.
“Reducing lanes will affect who even comes to Corktown, Cockrel said. “What really needs to happen is they need parking structures at both ends (of the project).”
Concerns about parking issues due to the project have the association and residents looking at implementing parking permits for residents, Cockrel said. The project initially was going to eliminate 43 much-needed parking spots but now calls for adding seven, Cockrel said.
“It is not done in the eyes of the community,” she said of the project. “There needs to be a different approach,” Cockrel said of limits on left turns, adding parking and ease of visitors to get to and from Corktown.
Designs for the project call for saving the signature brick paving from area streets for incorporating into its look. The association and residents insisted the bricks be saved.
The streets needed replacement, MDOT said, because they were not meant for heavy trucks, buses or the amount of traffic on them. They want to get ahead of any possible issues due to their age or condition.
A copy of the community presentation on April 16, 2025, can be found at https://www.michigan.gov/mdot/projects-studies/us-12-detroit-mobility-corridor. In addition, MDOT and the City of Detroit continue to accept comments about the plan design from residents and businesses in the focus area. Email your comments to either Augusta Gudeman (Detroit DPW) at augusta.gudeman@detroitmi.gov or Andrea Wilcox (MDOT) at WilcoxA2@Michigan.gov
