GRAND HAVEN, Mich. - A well known one-way street in downtown Grand Haven will soon be a two-way street.
Columbus Avenue from Harbor Drive to Fifth Street is scheduled to be converted into a two-way street in late-August.
The City Council approved the move nearly unanimously back in June. According to our partners at the Grand Haven Tribune, the re-striping and the resigning of the road from Harbor Drive to Fifth Street would cost the city just $3,400. Council members were not interested in going past Fifth Street because of the cost, so that area will remain a one way.
City Manager Pat McGinnis tells 13 ON YOUR SIDE the change is a bit of a pilot program. Some stores in the area think it'd be a better way to boost business.
"Just to improve access from the highway. There are property owners along Columbus that felt like their businesses would be more accessible if it were a two-way street," McGinnis said.
But not all are on board with the change.
"It should stay that way because I don't see no point in it really," Gil Baron, who is opposed of the change, said.
Many took to social media to express their concern, worried that the change will cause confusion and accidents. But McGinnis stressed a safety study was done and they feel the change will do just the opposite.
"There's considerable concerns with the one-ways because they are relatively unusual in Michigan, so we often have people driving the wrong-way down the street," McGinnis continued.
"We witness it periodically, you'll see someone driving one of these one-way pairs, particularly in the summer, with people who aren't familiar with the traffic around here -- so the idea of switching it to a two-way, we don't think is going to create too much havoc."
The re-striping and resigning will close down a portion of Columbus Monday, Aug. 20, from 2 a.m. to 5 p.m. The road will reopen as a two way once it's complete.
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