MDOT outlines Main Street reconstruction in St. Joseph, asks Berrien County for support

John Smith, Michigan Department of Transportation project manager, told the Berrien County Board of Commissioners that MDOT plans to reconstruct Main Street in St. Joseph from Central Avenue to the Blossomland Bridge and to rebuild Port and Ship streets, replacing roadway pavement and municipal utilities and adding streetscaping and pedestrian refuge features.

MDOT recommends a full-closure detour for the downtown portion of the job, beginning after Labor Day 2027 and completing the downtown work by Memorial Day 2028, and asked the board for a resolution of support as the project moves from design toward construction.

The project limits MDOT described include Main Street from Central Avenue north to the Blossomland Bridge, Port and Ship streets through the downtown corridor, and a short resurfacing segment on Niles Avenue (M-63) between Winchester and Main Street. Much of Main Street is planned as full reconstruction — "replacing everything under the road," Smith said, including storm sewer, sanitary sewer and water main, plus new traffic signals and streetscaping. He said portions between the Morrison Channel bridge and the Bicentennial Bridge will be rehabilitation work (asphalt resurfacing) rather than full reconstruction.

Why it matters: MDOT said the work will affect county buildings and operations adjacent to the corridor, including the Berrien County administration building, courthouse and sheriff's office. County staff and sheriff's office representatives participated in MDOT stakeholder meetings, and MDOT presented staging and access plans intended to preserve driveway and emergency access where possible.

Public engagement and design approach MDOT said it has conducted multiple advisory-group and public meetings and ran a public survey that drew 875 responses. Smith said that level of survey response was unusually high for MDOT outreach and that the agency verified responses as legitimate. The project moved through an early preliminary engineering (EPE) phase in 2024 and entered preliminary engineering and 30-percent plans in late 2024; MDOT said it is advancing to a 60-percent design submittal.

To shorten construction time and improve constructability, MDOT said it used a construction-manager/general-contractor approach (CMGC) that brings a contractor into design to advise on staging and schedule. The contractor identified in the presentation materials was Kalen Construction; MDOT also retained an independent cost estimator to review pricing and help negotiate a contract once design is complete.

Traffic staging, alternatives and recommended approach MDOT presented three staging alternatives: part-width construction (maintain traffic on half the roadway and flip), directional detour (maintain two lanes in one direction while detouring the other), and full closure with detour. The agency recommended alternative 2, the full-closure detour, saying it would shorten the downtown construction period from two full seasons to about one-and-a-half seasons and allow the downtown portion — described as the segment from Elm Street to the Blossomland Bridge and Port/Ship streets — to be completed in a non-summer timeframe so it is open by the 2028 tourist season.

Smith said designers aimed to improve pedestrian safety by removing uncontrolled crossings that lack refuge islands or signals: "We're gonna eliminate any uncontrolled pedestrian crossings along Main Street, that, you know, is not at a signal or does not have some sort of a refuge." He said the design team revised crossing locations and added refuge islands and redistributed some left-turn movements to reduce crossing widths and provide refuges.

Parking and local impacts The presentation said on-street parking on Main Street includes 34 spaces that would be removed and repurposed into wider sidewalks, planting beds and other streetscape elements. Smith said the city provided a parking study showing roughly 1,200 public parking spaces downtown and the potential to add about 200 spaces through courthouse lot access; he characterized the 34 spaces as less than 3 percent of downtown public parking and said MDOT and the city balanced pedestrian space against on-street parking demand.

MDOT identified several project-specific impacts to county property: possible reconfigured driveways by the courthouse and sheriff's complex, moving an existing parking lot that encroaches on MDOT right of way, and a proposed new driveway north of Port Street near the courthouse. Smith said the easternmost sheriff's-department driveway would be kept open at all times and that staging would be coordinated with the sheriff's office and county staff.

Questions and coordination Commissioner Julie (name and title not otherwise specified in the transcript) raised parking and detour concerns: "That's taking away spots," she said, asking why on-street parking would be removed. Smith responded that MDOT and the city viewed wider pedestrian areas as a better long-term use of the curb lane and reiterated the parking counts and design rationale.

Julie asked about detour routing and the condition of M-139, which MDOT also is managing. Smith, who is the project manager for the M-139 work, said that the northern portion of M-139 (Pipestone north) is scheduled for 2026 work and the remainder for 2027, and that MDOT is trying to coordinate schedules so M-139 segments are completed before the Main Street detour begins. He said detour routes would be signed and that MDOT planned segmented closures so completed sections reopen while work continues elsewhere.

A question about Napier Avenue lane configuration during detours drew no commitment; Smith said MDOT would review the suggestion with engineering staff but had no change to announce.

Formal actions and next steps The board approved minutes from the June 26 meeting by voice vote (motion recorded as moved by Freeling [transcript spelling], seconded by Tyler) with no roll-call tally recorded.

MDOT representatives said next steps include advancing toward 60-percent design, continued utility coordination and right-of-way work, and ongoing meetings with county staff and downtown stakeholders. Smith pointed board members to an MDOT public story map website (QR code provided in the presentation) that hosts project history, public meeting materials and concept graphics.

MDOT requested a resolution of support from Berrien County as the agency advances design and seeks to finalize construction contracting.