UPDATE (Thu 11/1/18 at 8:08am) - The road closure on West Michigan Avenue goes into effect today for the Heritage Tower project.

A few weeks ago, a traffic shift was put in place on Michigan Avenue in downtown Battle Creek so crews could work on the Heritage Tower renovations.   Now comes word that the entire street will have to close, until next Spring!

A news release from the city today says Michigan Avenue will be completely shut down to traffic as crews work on the historic building at 25 West Michigan Avenue.

The city says the project’s contractor determined that the traffic shift in place does not allow enough room for the heavy equipment required to set up exterior scaffolding needed to move materials. This stage of work involves construction on upper floors of the 19-story building.  Staff expect the closure will be in place until the spring of 2019.

To allow for this change, the following now will be in place between Capital Avenue SW and the pedestrian crosswalk at Riverwalk Centre:

  •  West Michigan will be completely closed to traffic between Capital Avenue SW and   Riverwalk Centre. A detour will be in place using Van Buren Street.
  •  There will be no street parking on either side of this section of West Michigan.
  •  There will be no pedestrian access on the south side of West Michigan in this section, in front of Heritage Tower.
  •  Pedestrians can access the north side of West Michigan, but barricades will stop them from crossing in the section with the traffic shift.

The Riverwalk parking structure will remain accessible from both sides of the main lot level.

Heritage Tower is a highly-anticipated, mixed-use project that will feature commercial spaces on the first two floors, and an expected 85 residential units on the upper floors.

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