Light Rail tracks being laid up Woodward?

The last few days I've drove past road construction on Wooward from just north of I-75 to just south of MLK. Until today, I haven't paid much attention as to what they are doing. With so much road construction in Detroit and the state of Michigan, I wrote it off as just some more orange barrels to drive around. A few minutes ago however I took notice. In the center turn lane they have ground up the asphault in a manner that looks almost perfect width for a set of rails. Now I realize that there must be a track bed and other steps in order to install the usable tracks, but is this part of the environmental impact study? It just seems odd to me that they only tore up two strips for maybe 1/2 mile or less up Woodward.

The light rail vehicles are pretty heavy. I imagine they'd have to prepare a railbed.

Anyway, I don't know what's going on. Just specumalatin'.

Uh, yeah, I said that. I was just wondering if this is part of the environmental impact study.

There's been construction on Woodward all summer.

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Originally Posted by Supersport

Uh, yeah, I said that. I was just wondering if this is part of the environmental impact study.

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Well, then, I really have nothing to add. :[[

It would not be at all typical for the preparation of an EIS to include any kind of construction work.

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Originally Posted by professorscott

It would not be at all typical for the preparation of an EIS to include any kind of construction work.

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yeah... I wouldn't think so either. It is probably just typical MDOT shenanigan, tearing up and reconstructing a road just to tear it up a year later.

Although it would be nice to think they are preparing for rail tracks, and somehow not interfering with the EIS. But considering the option A [[center of road) vs B [[right lane) hasn't even been selected, I doubt this is the case. So again, probably just MDOT and their lack of foresight and intelligent planning. I hope I am wrong though.

It's not light rail work:

July 25, 2010 8:00 PM
Woodward paving goes ahead despite possible tear up for rail

By Bill Shea
The Michigan Department of Transportation moved ahead with a $4 million Woodward Avenue paving project that eventually could be partially torn up for a new light rail system because the city of Detroit doesn't yet have money for the mass transit effort.
The state said the road is in bad condition and that waiting much longer to do the concrete resurfacing would have inflated the repair costs.
“While we know the city has desires to put in light rail between West Grand and Eight Mile Road, they most likely will be trying to leverage federal transit funding, which will require environmental and economic feasibility studies. This could take several years to complete,” said Rob Morosi, MDOT's communications representative for metro Detroit.
“That same 1.5 mile stretch may cost close to $10 million [[to fix) if we let the roadway deteriorate further and had to rebuild it in a future year.”
Woodward is a state highway, and MDOT in April began a 1.5-mile resurfacing project between Tuxedo and Chandler streets that is scheduled to wrap up in November.
That stretch is part of the city's plan to build a light rail loop along Woodward to Eight Mile Road.
A private group, M1 Rail, is funding the rail line from Hart Plaza to New Center for $125 million while the Detroit Department of Transportation is handling the remainder for $300 million.
M1 Rail raised its funding privately, while the city is seeking federal aid.
None has been awarded, but U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is expected soon to announce a financial commitment by the Obama administration for the project.
MDOT opted for a smaller-scale Woodward project now because of the rail plans.
“In order for any rail installation, some parts will have to be torn up. This is why we went with the resurfacing instead of the reconstruction,” Morosi said.
The city and MDOT have been coordinating Woodward projects, said Bob Berg, partner and vice president at Detroit-based Berg Muirhead and Associates, which does media relations work for the city.
“There's been ongoing communication,” he said.

What a f-ing joke.

When they were doing the grinding on Woodward you could see the old street car lines in the pavement so it seems that it wouldn't be to hard to get to them and use the old rails as opposed to putting in new lines but usually brand new lines are put in.Wouldn't it be cost effective to do this?I saw the old street car lines a few years back when they were redoing Charlevoix from St.Jean to I think Grand Boulevard and it looked like they could have put up a power line and ran a streetcar down it.The bricks and granite blocks looked like the day the were put in.Over the summer a new water main was put in on Van Dyke and you could see the old timbers under the streetcar rail and they were intact still after all these years.The workmen told me as long as no air hit the timbers,that they would last for decades!

Whatever they are doing [[steam line work, I believe), it sure is a pain in the ass when every day they have a different set of lanes closed on the northbound side by Brush Park. It's a game of chicken on the scooter with those bus drivers - I swear that they go 50 MPH up and down Woodward all day.

I kinda doubt you could use the old rails. They used great quality steel, but even underground you're probably gonna get the kind of deflection and corrosion that makes them useless.

As for tearing up Woodward to tear it up later, that could be shenanigans. How do you know if it's graft anymore? I'd say it's a bad sign if we're wasting money here while other state roads go gravel. There's only so much cash.

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Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

I kinda doubt you could use the old rails. They used great quality steel, but even underground you're probably gonna get the kind of deflection and corrosion that makes them useless.

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Yep. .

Here are some of the Woodward Projects:
http://www.semcog.org/Data/Apps/tran...password=guest
http://www.semcog.org/Data/Apps/tran...password=guest

I actually have no idea what they are doing there. It looks like they are selectively removing twin 10" strips of the road, doing something about 4" deep, and carefully replacing the 10" part with very dark, smooth asphalt. Weird.

Also, its south of the re-paving area. It's in the area of the 'privately funded light rail section'. Does that make a difference? I did think that at least they weren't repaving the privately funded section, because that actually seems to be closer to construction.