East US 10 to close for Walhalla railroad construction in late October.

East US 10 to close for Walhalla railroad construction in late October.

BRANCH TOWNSHIP –A railroad crossing construction project will close East US 10 for almost a week in late October. The project is expected to take place between Oct. 23 to 27 with traffic being detoured to Walhalla Road, south to Hawley Road, west to Scottville Road, then north back into Scottville.

The Scottville City Commission is expected to discuss the detour at its meeting on Monday, Oct. 2 because of concerns of increased traffic going on South Main Street. City Manager Amy Williams is asking the city commission to prohibit parking on Main Street from State Street (US 10) to Fifth Street.

“With potentially all US 10 traffic using South Main Street and knowing a good percentage of it is commercial trucks I don’t believe parking on South Main is a good idea,” Williams said. “Turning onto or off from South Main is tricky at best sometimes, with parked cars the street becomes that much narrower and I foresee issues with semi trucks’  turning or even navigating the street in any location as it becomes narrow with parked cars.  In the event of an accident with a parked car the street could be totally shut down for a significant amount of time and that would completely close the detour route.  Most all our businesses have rear entrances that can be used or there are cut through areas that allow pedestrian traffic to access the front of the businesses from the back parking lots. I know that this may not be ideal, but Police Chief Don Riley and I believe it to be the safest route for everyone.  I also talked to the Road Commission about this and they too agree it would be much safer without parked cars as they are afraid of accidents happening.”

Williams said she has also asked the Michigan Department of Transportation to change the timing of the traffic light at State and Main streets to help flow traffic more efficiently.

Williams said Scottville Police Department will increase patrols in the area of the detour as well.