Last Updated: August 10, 2009
Project Overview
The City of Ann Arbor is currently beginning the planning phase for a project to make improvements to Miller Avenue between North Maple Road and Newport Road. In addition to repaving the roadway, other potential improvements could include replacing some utilities (water mains, sanitary sewer), improved bicycle lanes, pedestrian crossings, installation of sidewalks, traffic improvements, and storm water improvements (such as storm water detention, bio-swales, rain gardens, etc.).
Schedule
The City is currently beginning the public involvement phase of this project to collect input from citizens and other stakeholders in advance of the engineering design phase. As part of this phase of the project, the City is forming a Design Advisory Committee (DAC) to be composed of City Staff and other stakeholders, including member of the public familiar with the corridor. An approximate outline for this phase of the work is as follows:
April 1 Public Input Meeting
April 9 DAC Meeting
April 9 – May 15 Additional surveys mailed out & collected from area residents
May 14 DAC Meeting (for meeting minutes, click here)
May 14 – mid July City staff to develop some design concepts for review
July 14 DAC Meeting (for meeting minutes, click here)
July 29 Public Workshop (see below for more info)
Construction work for this project is currently anticipated to begin in the Spring of 2011.
Citizen Survey
In addition to comments and surveys received from the April 1 public meeting, surveys were mailed out to residents on Miller Avenue and the surrounding area. A total of 55 completed surveys were received. Survey responses were read through and summarized. To view the summary of the survey results, click here.
The results of the survey were used by the City and the DAC to develop the following main goals for the project:
- New pavement
- Safer pedestrian crossings
- Safer bicycle passage
- Storm water quality improvements
- Reduce quantity of storm water runoff
- Don’t make it more difficult for residents to exit their driveways
- ADA access to bus stops (sidewalk & lead walks)
- Improve traffic flow at the Newport/Miller intersection
- Improve traffic flow around left turning traffic on Miller
With these goals in mind, City staff is working on developing several conceptual design alternatives, which will then be presented to the public at a public workshop on July 29th. (see below for more info)
Public Workshop
A public workshop was held on Wednesday, July 29th at the Forsythe Middle School Media Center. At this meeting various conceptual design alternatives were presented and participants were divided into small groups to discuss each of the options. The different conceptual options that were presented can be downloaded below, as well as a summary of comments from the workshop.
Following the discussion, each participant was asked to select their preferred option for the Miller/Newport intersection, and their preferred option for the main Miller Avenue corridor. The number of people that selected each of the options is summarized below. (Note: This data includes selections made via e-mail as well)
Miller/Newport Intersection
Option A (Leave Existing) – 2
Option B (Left Turn Lane & Pedestrian Island) – 5
Option C (Roundabout) – 27
Miller Avenue Corridor
Option 1 (Continuous Left Turn Lane) – 2
Option 2 (Bump Outs) – 9
Option 3 (Occasional Left Turn Lanes & Pedestrian Islands – 23
Following are the different conceptual options presented at the public workshop. Also presented below is a table showing a comparison of the different concepts and the relative advantages and disadvantages of each. To download each of these items, click on the appropriate title below. Warning: Some of these files are very large!