BIRMINGHAM, Mich. – People living in the city of Birmingham are trying to prevent a construction nightmare from beginning.
City officials are considering a plan to reduce a portion of the Maple Road between Eton and Adams from two car lanes in each direction to one. The extra space will be used for a center turn lane and bike paths.
"You can mess with my personal convenience and I'll probably just shrug it off and carry on. Mess with my business and I'm up in arms," said Dr. Scott Meldrum of Birmingham.
Meldrum has lived in the Birmingham Estates neighborhood for more than 20 years. His dental practice is on Elm Street, a block south of Maple Road. Meldrum has gone far to stop the construction. He started a petition and has four pages of signatures. He is worried his patients -- especially those living east of Coolidge Road -- will go somewhere else.
"It's already bumper to bumper in the afternoon," said Meldrum. "One lane in each direction won't accommodate all the people waiting for the light. It will back up all the time."
Birmingham City Manager Robert Bruner said the change would be for safety reasons. According to SEMCOG that section of Maple Road has a high crash rate and to bring those statistics down, the Federal Highway Administration encourages a "road diet."
"There are a lot of accidents on Maple and a lot of speeders, when you take lanes away, 15 percent of drivers will go elsewhere," said Bruner. "We want to divert traffic onto other main roads to try and make Maple safer for those who live and work in the area."
Bruner tells Local 4 the construction project is nowhere near being a done deal. The city realizes residents have strong concerns. That's why city is holding a public hearing.
"Legally, we don't have to do this, but we don't want to hear everyone's concerns to make sure we are making the right decision," said Bruner.
The Birmingham City Commission is holding the public hearing at 7:30 p.m. Monday where they will formally present the project to the public for the first time.