The Ann Arbor City Council is holding a rare Thursday meeting tonight. One item on the agenda asks City Administrator Milton Dohoney Jr. to negotiate the transfer ownership of all the state-owned trunklines in Ann Arbor to the city.
The trunklines of North Main Street and the Washtenaw, Huron and Jackson Avenue corridor have been prioritized by the Michigan Department of Transportation to serve motor vehicle traffic, but city officials want to see the routes become more pedestrian-friendly.
City Council member Dharma Akmon is one of the resolution’s cosponsors. She says it’s a matter of safety.
“I thought it was quite telling that, just in the time of commissioning this investigations into the possibility of doing this, we had one-third of our serious and fatal injuries crashes on these trunklines.”
The hope is that the MDOT will help pay for the desired improvements of the four roads and then transfer ownership to the city but that would have to be negotiated.
Dohoney had previously told Council members it could cost as high as $82 million, but it’s worth to ask.
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