Gun Plain Township board members said they plan to push ahead with a plan to redo 8th Street.
Supervisor Mike VanDenBerg said he’d be asking the Allegan County Road Commission to join in on the project at a road meeting Monday, Jan. 15, at the road commission.
“I’m going to be pushing for improving this section of 8th Street,” VanDenBerg said. “We want to make this a class A road.”
The road has an outlet onto the Plainwell Industrial Park and the township hall and fire station on it.
“We get so much semi traffic here and it’s tough to get some of them down here because it’s so narrow,” VanDenBerg said. “Then, we have our fire trucks.”
The road’s estimated cost for widening and strengthening to the higher standard was about $750,000, he said, at the township’s Thursday, Jan. 4, regular meeting.
“I’m going to request the county to chip in some for this road,” VanDenBerg said. “I’d like to have it done in one year, because it’ll be so disruptive to the fire department and to the industrial park and truck traffic.”
Clerk Marty Meert pointed out the township had helped the county out by contributing to its 10th Street project a few years ago, despite 10th Street being a primary road which the county was responsible for. Gun Plain’s contributions allowed for more of the road to be resurfaced and chip sealed.
VanDenBerg said having 8th Street as the designated truck route between 106th Avenue/Marsh Road and M-89 rather than 6th Street would be better for drivers and for semis.
“I think it’ll be better to have them coming down this road rather than 6th Street,” he said. “It’s much easier to turn here than there, where it comes out right on Dead Man’s Curve.”
The township set a special meeting to discuss roads for Tuesday, Jan. 30, at 5 p.m. at the township hall.
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