Fencing or similar on Earhardt Rd. bridge over US-23?

[Rick Carter]

Hi, everyone! I just joined the Coalition.

I've been trying to get traction on something, but no reply yet, and was curious if anyone else has tried, or can point me at a proper contact.

The Earhardt Rd. bridge over US-23 is very narrow for pedestrians on the shoulder, as well as cyclists like me who have trouble with taking the whole lane on some occasions (I feel pressured to get over when getting tailgated, figuring it's less risky than getting bumped). Now that I bicycle that regularly, it's occurred to me that with a cyclist's top-heavy, higher-than-pedestrian center of gravity, getting clipped by a car could put a cyclist over the edge and onto US-23. Obviously, the bridge should be widened, but that's the kind of thing that takes years to happen. So a cheaper/quicker solution would be something like fencing, even a very few feet higher would make it immensely safer.

I did discover that it's in Ann Arbor Township (there's a little spur of A2 Township along Earhardt Rd. that hangs down into the Ann Arbor border for some reason), and looking at http://aatwp.org/contact/ I wrote the Engineer, which was as close as I could come to someone possibly responsible for that (and of course, asked that he point my note/me at the proper resource if not). I wrote Saturday; no reply as of yet. Does anyone have a better idea of who to write? I know there can be some issues of "ownership" when it comes to anything State Highway-related, so would the bridge be a State thing?

Any help on where to go with this would be highly appreciated. They just re-blacktopped a bunch of Earhardt Rd., and it's a pretty nice ride otherwise, at least north of the bridge.

- Rick Carter

rick.carter[at]gmail.com

[K Griswold]

Contact the Washtenaw County Road Commission. They have responsibility for the roads in the townships and will know if MDOT has an authority for the overpass.

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Katherine J. Griswold

Michigan MBA & MSW

734.657.7900

[Gmail]

Try local MDOT office. Federal roads & bridges are maintained by states through contracts with US government. 

Jan E. Tripp

Ann Arbor

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