It was dark all around, there was frost on the ground, when the TIGERs broke free

I took a step into my old life on Tuesday night when I headed to a public hearing on proposed improvements at the Ford Road and I-275 interchange.

Part of it was curiosity and the hope of seeing my old acquaintances from my newspaper days and part of it was--I admit it--I missed watching government in action. It's refreshing to be able to do that as an interested resident.

This meeting was a little different than the countless others I attended as a journalist. State Sen. Patrick Colbeck (R-Canton), a member of the senate transportation committee, convinced the committee to move the public hearing to Canton Township. The goal was to win support from the committee, along with the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), in order to gain some additional leverage on an application for a Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant from the federal government. The grants were first made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Canton has applied for the grant twice, and twice been rejected.

All they're trying to do is get $22 million in funding to fix up what has statistically been the most dangerous stretch of road in the state. The money would provide for two 'slip' ramps from the freeway that would divert traffic directly to Haggerty Road, as well as a service drive from Cherry Hill to Ford. All would alleviate traffic and reduce the potential for accidents. There have been more than 2,400 collisions along that stretch of road in the past six years, according to Tim Faas, Canton's municipal service director.

Sounds like a no-brainer, right? I sure thought so and I editorialized about it back then--each time. I saluted the Canton officials in print, congratulating them on the quality of the application. I'm sure the officials in Canton thought it would be an easy decision, too. As did the police officers that were called there, literally, every day, to write up an accident report or two or three.

But this is the state government, and the state government first required a $450,000 regional study that took three years to complete and then ignored the results of that study.

Fortunately, things look a little better this time around. There is a lot of regional support. Three different mayors spoke. Legislators from both chambers--and both sides of the aisle--were in agreement. Most surreal of all (to me, at least) was Livonia Mayor Jack Kirksey sitting side-by-side with Northville Township Manager Chip Snider. A few short years after Kirksey supported the annexation of a portion of Northville Township, here Kirksey was joking about Livonia being a suburb of Canton. Oh, the irony.

In the end, the committee approved the two resolutions in support of the grant that Colbeck sponsored. That might give this request the weight it needs to get this much-needed project moving. Let's hope so.
Granted, the state and the feds have other projects in mind. This one is just hard to argue against.