By Lindsey Soet
Beginning on Feb. 5, the intersection of Division Avenue and Fountain Street will be closed to traffic for utility work. This closure will have a major effect on the traffic patterns around Grand Rapids Community College’s campus, as the construction blocks many students’ typical route to park in Ramp A.
According to the press release sent out by the City of Grand Rapids and City Engineer Tim Burkman, the upcoming closure is the first of multiple phases taking place over the 2024 construction season. The projects taking place this year include relocating and replacing multiple underground utilities along with city electrical, water and sewer infrastructure.
“It’s really a combination of private utilities with Consumers and AT&T and Vicinity all working to replace and in some cases relocate their underground infrastructure, as well as city electrical, water and sewer infrastructure,” Burkman said. “We’ve been communicating to the public that it’s going to take the entirety of the 2024 construction season.”
After the construction on Division and Fountain is completed on March 4, the Division and Fulton intersection is scheduled to close this summer for roughly four months for continued utility replacement and relocations.
Despite the project being announced to the public in December 2023, the plan to relocate and update the infrastructure around the city has been in progress for the past three years.
Burkam said he knew about the project for “probably at least the last three years,” adding that, “We’ve known that we’ve needed to reconstruct this segment of Division for some time and we’ve actually delayed that road project to accommodate and coordinate with the significant utility replacement and relocation work that needs to happen.”
To learn more about the Division and Fountain construction project as well as available detours, you can visit the City of Grand Rapids’ website.
