By Katherine Conlee
Over twenty local residents gathered at Sandusky City Hall Thursday evening for MDOT’s open house discussing the upcoming M-46 and M-19 street projects.
Community stakeholders, city representatives, local business members, and interested community members were presented with information regarding future detours and projected timelines.
Dan’s Excavating has been contracted and will be completing work in several stages from 2024 through 2025.
Stage I of the project begins on Monday, March 11, at the intersection of Stoutenberg Road and M-46 and will continue until mid-April 2024. During this time, Stoutenberg Road will be closed at M-46, and M-46 will be shifted to the south with westbound traffic being maintained.
Stage II will include M-46 from M-19 east to Stoutenberg Road from mid-April to mid-July. The most impactful stage of the project is slated to be the reconstruction of the M-19 and M-46 intersection from mid to late July. The remaining stretch of M-46 through M-19 west to Maple Valley Street will begin in late August through the end of October. The stretch of M-19 from Miller Road north to M-46 will be undergoing construction as well from early August to early November.
Stage III includes finishing the work on M-19. Northbound traffic on M-19 will be detoured via Miller Road, Campbell Road, and back up to M-46; however, southbound traffic will continue to use M-19.
Looking ahead to 2025, the paving of M-46 from Carsonville west to Campbell Road will start as early as spring and will run through November of 2025. The bridge replacement of M-46 over the Black River will likely take the entire construction season of 2025.
In addition to the MDOT work, the city of Sandusky’s water main project began in February and will be happening in tandem with the street project. While there were some concerns about possible coordination conflicts with the MDOT project, the construction team has reportedly been hard at work to make sure such problems never occur.
Sandusky City Manager Dave Faber announced at Thursday’s meeting that the construction team for the city’s water main project is two weeks ahead of schedule. Faber added that “Once we get to the intersection on M-19, the contractor will switch to the west side, start at Dawson, and head back east. And then we’re saving the four corners to work [on] with MDOT [to] do all at the same time.”
Project coordinators also cleared up some confusion concerning the planned pedestrian islands meant to serve as a refuge for those crossing the streets. While such plans have not strayed far from their initial proposals, the current goal is to install one island on M-19, with the ones on M-46 having been discarded at the request of the city.
