By Megan Kelley
Editor
mkelley@mihomepaper.com
CLARKSTON — As construction on I-75 takes its toll on Clarkston residents, the City of the Village of Clarkston has continued to try and alleviate the stress on both the roads and its residents with little success.
According to City Manager Jonathan Smith, much of the problem comes from the Michigan Department of Transportation’s redirection of traffic through the city using Main Street to get to southbound I-75.
Though there are specified detours, Smith says he has found that residents in the Davisburg area are opting out of using the detour route they should be using (Dixie Highway to M-15 then M-15 to I-75) however, motorists are coming from Davisburg down Holcomb Road, cutting across Bluegrass Dive, Miller Road or Washington Street and turning left onto Main Street toward I-75.
“A lot of people are taking this back way that everybody knows about to get into downtown Clarkston.” Smith said.
Smith also added that though he is unsure of whose idea it was, there was a push to close Bluegrass Drive, which has only made matters worse.
“It didn’t take any traffic away. It just put more traffic, with Bluegrass closed, onto the other two roads, which is Miller and Washington. So those two roads are experiencing a lot of traffic,” said Smith.
Another issue is large trucks that exceed the maximum road capacity taking the “back way” as well.
Despite these issues, Smith has had little success working with MDOT to resolve them.
“So I’ve been in discussions with both MDOT and the road commission. Not making a lot of progress with MDOT, to be honest. The road commission is studying the option we talked about one of our previous council meetings about putting a four-way stop at West Washington and Holcomb that would at least allow people on Washington an opportunity to get across or around the corner, wherever,” said Smith. “Right now there’s so much traffic at the intersection, and everybody’s in a hurry and so they don’t want to let anybody in. So it’s really, it’s dicey at times. I see people just, they just gun it and go for it.”
According to Smith, he has been in talks with the traffic engineer for the Road Commission of Oakland County, advocating for a four-way stop at that intersection but has been told that “history doesn’t warrant” turning it into a four-way stop.
Smith informed council that he had a meeting scheduled with the RCOC the following Thursday on May 15 but has not made progress with MDOT.
“I’ve not made any progress with MDOT. They feel strongly that this is the way that has to be, and we’re just going to have to get through this, we have to weather the storm,” Smith said. “I understand there’s no good way to do this, but I think there are some mitigation steps that could be made, and we’re trying to work with them.”
Sgt. John Ashley from the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office spoke to confirm that he and Smith are hoping to get sit down meetings scheduled to figure out a better alternative moving forward but also get a better idea of what the timeline is. Though the official MDOT schedule indicates the project will be complete in the fall, it lacks specificity in the timeline of specific roads and ramps.
Ashley also noted that the officer who polices truck weights has been “having a heyday” pulling over trucks exceeding the weight capacity.
Concerns were also raised over the opening of Pine Knob in the coming weeks for summer concerts.
Despite efforts made by the city to find any solution, council expressed their disappointment in the reception they have received from MDOT.
“My thing is that we all know what the problem is. We know what is causing the problem and we have presented nothing but ideas to try and mitigate it. And at this point, just from the meetings that I’ve been in, the road commission has failed us and MDOT has failed us,” said councilmember Erica Jones. “We have literally tried asking for every single thing and the fact that MDOT has basically told you that until we have a fatal accident, there’s nothing they can do about it; completely unacceptable from a public safety standpoint.”
Jones added that she felt there was little else that can be done other than to urge residents to call the RCOC and MDOT or start a letter writing campaign.
Another potential avenue forward that Smith suggested was potentially contacting Representative Elissa Slotkin’s office to see if there was anything that could be done on her end.
Because of another agenda item at the meeting, Karen Joliat, Clarkston’s representative on the Oakland County Board of Commissioners office was in attendance and made a point to tell council that she would bring the concerns up to the Board of Commissioners.