An Excellent Display of Regional Cooperation
/At the January meeting, the WATS Policy Committee approved to allocate additional funding to the following projects:
Huron Pathway Project - $125,000 of HIPU Funds
Huron/Hamilton/Washtenaw Road Diet - $100,000 of HIPU Funds
This funding was made available from the FY2020 apportionment of Highway Improvement Program - Urban (HIP-U) funds. Typically these dollars would not be spent on state owned roads. Limited federal aid funding is crucial for sustaining our local roads. But the WATS Policy Committee, with recommendation from the WATS Technical Committee and the WATS Federal Aid Committee, determined that the regional significance of these projects ultimately outweighed any hesitations from funding sources. MDOT will also match the total $225,000 to help ensure these projects move forward.
The Huron Pathway project will provide a safe non-motorized crossing over I-94 at Huron Street, a vital connection between the City of Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Township. The crossing lies within an Environmental Justice focus area, is hazardous for non-motorized users, and represents a major barrier between communities. The Huron/I-94 crossing is identified as a regionally significant project in the WATS Long Range Plan (LRP). In fact, the LRP states:
“Every effort should be made to construct this project and connect these communities”
Scheduled for construction in 2022, the $3.3 million project represents a regional coordination between the City of Ypsilanti, Ypsilanti Township, Washtenaw County Road Commission, and WATS that has been over ten years in the making. In 2014, WATS worked with local partners and MDOT to determine a preferred crossing design and initiate work on the project.
Funds for the Hamilton, Huron, and Washtenaw Road Diet project will be used to aid non-motorized elements to Huron/Hamilton, which connects to the future Huron Pathway project and the Border to Border trail.
View a complete list of projects programmed in the 2020-2023 TIP here.
