|
Leaders have urged the construction of a downtown Interstate 675 ramp for years.
They may have to wait only a little while longer.
The U.S. House passed a bill Wednesday to allow a $10 million earmark for the estimated $12.5 million future ramp at Warren and I-675. The bill heads to President George W. Bush for his signature.
The federal government has pledged to pay $10 million, and Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm previously committed to a state contribution to cover the rest of the cost.
The state Department of Transportation says with funding in place, work could start in 2010 or 2011, said Anita Richardson, a regional spokeswoman.
She cautions that date isn't set in concrete. If funding hadn't come through by May, she said, the delay could have set back the project start date to 2014.
Saginaw County Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President Veronica Horn, who helped shepherd the initiative to get the ramp, hopes the final OK for the federal cash will jump-start the work.
''We've already been at this for six years, and we fully intend to get this moving,'' she said. ''The sooner, the better.''
Horn said she hopes the agency could begin the work when it starts an I-675 repaving project. Richardson said that work is set to begin next year and continue in 2010.
U.S. Rep. Dale E. Kildee, a Flint Democrat who represents Saginaw, said boosters lobbying for the ramp convinced him to work with U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Lansing Democrat, to find a way to fund it.
''Saginaw's No. 1 priority became my No. 1 priority in construction,'' he said.
The off-ramp could act as a magnet to draw other business to downtown, he added.
Boosters also see the exit as a way to improve access with entertainment venues renovated in recent years and a growing list of medical offices along Washington in Saginaw.
''We wanted something that would not be confusing to the traveler,'' Horn said.
Originally, backers had hoped the ramp would bring drivers directly onto Washington, but cost estimates that ranged from $31 million to more than $68 million quashed those hopes.
As an alternative, officials settled on a $12.5 million option that brings drivers onto Warren off the northbound lanes of the freeway. Drivers could merge into the southbound lanes from Fitzhugh. Workers would close street access under I-675 on Second and Weadock and the northbound and southbound on- and off-ramps from Fifth/Sixth.
Horn said the new ramp would improve neighborhood safety because it would draw traffic that has through now exited I-675 at the Fifth/Sixth off-ramp.
Congress originally earmarked the money for the project in 2005, but lawmakers had to reallocate the money when planners chose Warren over the Washington site.
|
