Comments on: Discontent Emerges at Council Caucus

By: Steve Bean

Steve Bean — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 23:03:05 +0000

Anna, the tags are one person’s effort to categorize, not an official evaluation of the situation.

The bridges have been monitored closely by the city’s engineers for years, and this lane closing step is just prudence on their part. My understanding is that they act with a conservative safety margin. I think they would close the road before anything bad (that was foreseeable) would happen.

If you still have concerns, I suggest that you call the city or ask your council rep(s) for more info. They’re the ones “in the know”.

By: anna ercoli schnitzer

anna ercoli schnitzer — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 22:17:14 +0000

Yipes! So this bridge business is in a holding pattern…until something (BAD?) happens? I also thought it interesting that the memo in question was tagged:
“This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 at 7:33pm and is filed under Ann Arbor, Danger, Politics.”

By: Edward Vielmetti

Edward Vielmetti — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 21:15:36 +0000

Anna - Alan Pagliere unearthed this memo from 2008 on the E Stadium bridges: link One lane only is open in each direction on the bridge but traffic isn't detoured.

By: anna ercoli schnitzer

anna ercoli schnitzer — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 15:41:32 +0000

Could someone in the know please clarify the situation with the East Stadium Boulevard Bridge near the UM Stadium? I heard that only one lane in each direction is now open because “the engineers” think it is unsafe and cannot carry the usual amount of traffic. What is the plan of action and time frame needed to repair it? I don’t think people in the area know what is going on. I certainly don’t. Thanks.

By: Fred Zimmerman

Fred Zimmerman — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:44:55 +0000

Sorry, they’re en route to Hieftje, as the guy who ultimately bears responsibility.

By: Steve Bean

Steve Bean — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:32:08 +0000

The kudos would more appropriately be directed to our city staff.

By: Fred Zimmerman

Fred Zimmerman — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:26:20 +0000

Wow. Most of the stimulus projects aren’t very sexy, but they add up to $253M, mostly in fixing things that are broken or stinky. That’s kind of the whole point of the Obama message, isn’t it? I think this is a pretty good list. Kudos to Hieftje and hat tip to Dave for printing it.

By: Dave Askins

Dave Askins — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 19:36:47 +0000

"Can anyone publish a copy of Hieftje’s AA stimulus wish list?" Here's links to PDF's generated from the Excel spreadsheets -- many columns deleted for perspicuity's sake. The links are to be included in the write up of council's meeting last night, but that's still in the editing queue. Thus, I'm not certain these links will work: Envrionmental Projects Stimulus Projects

By: Fred Zimmerman

Fred Zimmerman — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 19:16:42 +0000

Can anyone publish a copy of Hieftje’s AA stimulus wish list?

It is discouraging that the city doesn’t have a shovel-ready plan for fixing the Stadium bridge if it collapses. It looks pretty creaky.

By: Kris

Kris — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 02:06:11 +0000

It’s absolutely appalling that City Council has not come to reality on this plan and instead allows it to march forward. How can such things be happening when we know there will be a severe drop in tax revenues over the next couple of year? Such behavior is downright irresponsible.