KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — The City of Kalamazoo is getting set to receive more than $12 million dollars from the federal government to improve it’s downtown streets.
The $12.27 million will go toward efforts to improve Kalamazoo and Michigan avenues with the goal of adding traffic calming improvements to make the roads more accessible to pedestrians and bicyclists.
According to a release from the U.S. Department of Transportation on Tuesday, February 28, M-DOT had laid out one-way east-west streets in Kalamazoo’s downtown business area about 60 years ago. This, the release said, created a “physical barrier between the City’s Northside, predominantly Black neighborhood and the central business district core.”
It went onto say the plan made more traffic move more quickly through downtown, which in turn divided the community and created access barriers for neighborhoods.
In total, The U.S. Department of Transportation is doling out $185 million in grants to 45 projects nationwide through the Reconnecting Communities Program, created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill.
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