Midland Daily News LogoHearst Newspapers Logo

Dow seeks city approval to close portion of South Saginaw Road

By , caldridge@mdn.netUpdated
This map on the city's website shows another view of the proposed closure.
This map on the city's website shows another view of the proposed closure.

The Dow Chemical Co. said on Thursday it submitted a formal request to the city of Midland to close about one mile of South Saginaw Road, which if approved would become part of Dow’s plant and be closed to the public.

The section that could close is between Mark Putnam and Salzburg roads in the southeast part of town.

In response to community feedback, Dow also announced it would offer a voluntary property purchase program to owners of affected residential property on Waldo Avenue south of Bay City Road.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Dow says it wants to consolidate its Michigan Operations and Dow Corning chemical manufacturing facilities into one, unified site, and that making the section of South Saginaw an internal road would save the company $4 million per year.

According to Dow, the closure is “essential to the company’s future investments in the transformation of Michigan Operations.” Dow in April said it plans to invest $400 million in its Michigan Operations over the next decade.

To vacate a road, the Midland City Council must first adopt a resolution to refer the matter to the planning commission and other city departments for a report and recommendation. When received, city council must adopt another resolution to declare its intent to consider the petition, and schedule and hold a public hearing within a month.

After the hearing, city council may either choose to vacate the road, take no action or table the matter — but if any objections are received, the street must not be vacated, abolished or discontinued except by a four-fifths vote of council members.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

The next city council meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday at City Hall, 333 W. Ellsworth St. The next planning commission meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at the same location.

If city officials approve Dow’s plan to close the road, traffic would be rerouted to Waldo Avenue and Bay City Road. The change would tax that intersection with about 600 more vehicles per hour at peak traffic times, according to Dow, which said it had hired DLZ of Michigan to complete a traffic study.

The reroute would add about three-quarters of a mile onto the commute for drivers — or about 90 to 180 seconds, depending on time of day and traffic light cycles, Dow says.

The plan would bring changes to other intersections, too:

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

• Saginaw Road at Bay City Road: Upgrade signal, optimize timing for all directions

• Waldo Avenue at Salzburg Road: Convert all-way stop to signalized intersection

• Waldo Avenue at Bay City Road: All directions: upgrade signals, optimize timing; northbound: extend left turn storage lane by 100 feet, upgrade signals to allow protected left-turn phases; eastbound: reassign approach lane assignments to include one left-turn only lane, one through lane and one right-turn only lane, upgrade signals to allow for permitted-over eastbound right turn phase.

“Dow would pay for those changes, but we would have the city do what is required,” Rich Wells, vice president and site director for Michigan Operations, said at a public meeting in April (story: http://bit.ly/2pZPKJe).

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Dow said it hosted 24 community input sessions and met with city officials and business owners, local civic organizations and other stakeholders. The city opened a survey on E-CityHall, its online public engagement platform, at http://www.midland-mi.org/125/E-CityHall with a 5 p.m. May 26 deadline to respond.

Dow announced plans on Thursday to:

• Fund the cost of road reconstruction on Waldo Avenue to ensure it can withstand the impact of more traffic and to increase the road’s lifespan

• Implement all of the traffic signal and turn lane upgrades recommended by traffic consultant DLZ

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

• Continue to partner with local emergency responders (EMS, fire, police) for mutual aid and to ensure response times are not delayed when using Saginaw Road

• Work with the city of Midland to pursue added safety measures to help enhance the safety of the Waldo Avenue neighborhood, including the addition of crosswalk caution lights, more speed limit signs, new “children playing” signs and signs directing trucks to use US-10 instead of Waldo Avenue

• Work closely with Cabot Corp. to ensure continued efficient operations

Wells said Dow would begin design work later this year. Road and traffic signal improvements would start in 2018, with construction of new site entrances and fencing — all pending city council approval. Construction could take eight to 12 months.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Wells told the Daily News the most important reason for the closure is safety and security of the site and community.

“We have a major road that goes through the middle of our plant,” he said. “The Department of Homeland Security doesn’t like that.”

Drivers coming into town on South Saginaw Road see a huge, rather nameless manufacturing site. So the closure would also serve an aesthetic measure, according to Wells.

“We don’t advertise ourselves really well,” he said. “We plan to put an attractive gatehouse entrance off Saginaw. We envision using some of Alden Dow’s work to help show that Michigan Operations is the premiere manufacturing site in the Midwest.”

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Wells lauded the plan in a Dow news release on Thursday.

“Dow remains committed to ongoing and transparent communications with residents and business owners as we proceed through the city of Midland process. We are proud of Dow’s heritage in Midland, including the new corporate headquarters building that will be opening soon, and we are looking forward to the significant investments in Michigan Operations that will spark growth, create new jobs and generate economic development in Midland and the Great Lakes Bay Region.”

For more Daily News coverage go to http://bit.ly/2qAEUeJ and for more info, go to http://www.dow.com/michigan/siteconsolidation

|Updated
By