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Late last week, the U.S. Department of Transportation and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced that the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and the City of Detroit would receive $25 million in a Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity RAISE grant toward a major project to modernize US-12 (Michigan Avenue) in Detroit\u2019s Corktown neighborhood.\xa0

On a new edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist talks about what this means to him as a neighbor of the corridor.\xa0

Per the grant application:

MDOT and the city are collaborating on a project to rebuild a portion of Michigan Avenue to support a safe, innovative, and multimodal travel corridor. The project will re-apportion space in the right of way to accommodate several new and improved multimodal facilities, including:

• Expanded sidewalks and pedestrian amenities like seating, lighting, and street trees.
• Raised bike lanes at sidewalk level for areas with existing lanes, new dedicated and buffered bike lanes in downtown, and bike racks.
• Two dedicated center-running lanes for transit vehicles and for connected and autonomous vehicles. Transit vehicles will have signal priority to limit waiting time.
• Improved amenities, like concrete transit islands and new shelters.
• Improved markings and islands for additional/enhanced midblock pedestrian crossings.
• Two new traffic signals for intersections.\xa0

Gilchrist talks about how these added benefits will transform the neighborhood and how the project spells good things to come for Corktown, a diverse neighborhood with a rich history.

Podcast photo: Michigan Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist II. Photo courtesy of Lt. Gov. Gilchrist's Office.