2025 Botham Avenue Reconstruction Project

Botham Avenue Reconstruction Project - Public Input Meeting

Full reconstruction of Botham Avenue from South State Street to Niles Avenue is slated for the 2025 construction season.  The project is rated high on the City Capital Improvement Project list due to the need to replace water main and roadway.  The biggest driver for the upcoming project is to improve water system reliability and fire flows to the east side of the City.

An open house is scheduled on Wednesday, June 19,  2024 from 6 PM to 7:00 PM in City Commission Chambers to gather input on the concepts being considered for the project, especially with regard to the addition of non-motorized facilities because the City’s Master Plan calls for a cross town bike route on Botham Avenue.  The City also needs to incorporate non-motorized facilities to meet the Complete Streets Policy adopted by the Southwest Michigan Planning Commission, which we must do to be remain eligible for the approximate $520,0000 in Surface Transportation Block Grant (STBG) funding

The addition of bike lanes or non-motorized paths does result in some trade-offs do to the limited space available within the public right-of-way.  On-street parking will need to be reduced or eliminated in some locations and trees will need to be removed to varying degrees based upon the concept selected.

The two concepts proposed are illustrated on the drawing file in the supplemental information below.

Exhibit 1 provides two five (5) foot wide bike lanes, one on each side of the roadway.  The roadway width remains approximately the same as it is today with this concept, but the on-street parking is eliminated in order to provide space for the bike lanes.

Exhibit 2 provides a ten (10) foot wide non-motorized path on the south side of the street and also allows for up to 7 on-street parking spaces on the north side of the roadway.

If you are unable to attend the meeting but desire to comment, please feel free to contact City Engineer Tim Zebell (telephone:  269-983-5541, email: tzebell@sjcity.com ).  Due constraints associated with the funding on this project, the design team intends to act quickly on concept selection process and make recommendation to the City Commission at their regularly scheduled meeting on June 24.