- Lake Lansing Road at Rutherford Avenue has been closed since September 10 for a Consumers Energy project.
- While a posted detour is supposed to reroute drivers, some are cutting through the nearby neighborhood at high speeds, sparking concerns from neighbors.
- Video shows thoughts from one neighbor and insight from the Meridian Township Police Department.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
Road closures causing concerns with neighbors. I'm your Meridian Township neighborhood reporter Colin Jankowski. This closure on Lake Lansing Road is causing detours, and neighbors say some taking those detours are speeding through their neighborhood. And it's causing concerns for safety.
"As soon as they're turning the corner, they're on the gas hitting it to 30, 40 miles an hour before they're even halfway down the street," Marcus Faubus said.
Marcus Faubus has lived on Pollard Avenue for six years, and says this isn't the first time this has happened.
"Every time they cut the side traffic off, it becomes a race track in between here," Faubus said.
For the past week, Consumers Energy has had the portion of Lake Lansing Road at Rutherford Avenue closed. While a posted detour instructs drivers to take Hagadorn Road, Abbot Road, and East Saginaw Street, Faubus says it hasn't prevented drivers from cutting through his block while speeding.
"It's a pretty dangerous situation for the children," he said. "We can't even come outside and play ball half the time because I don't trust it to go into the street and have an incident happen because people are foregoing the law. It makes me angry that the rules are not for them."
I spoke with Meridian Township Police Chief Rick Grillo on Wednesday about the issue.
"There are so many pedestrians in that area," Chief Grillo said. "People have to walk to their mailboxes which are on the side of the road to get their mail, and when you've got the volume of traffic that's coming through there, along with the speeds that people are going, it's very concerning for us."
And that concern is turning to action.
"We are going to have patrols in the area," he said. "We will have the patrol vehicles out making sure that people are obeying the laws."
According to the Ingham County Road Department, the work on Lake Lansing Road is expected to last one more week, and Faubus tells me he's hoping for a quick return to normal.
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