When the Berrien County Road Department reconstructs Red Arrow Highway between Bridgman and Stevensville in 2026, the road will be going on a diet and getting a trail alongside it.
The Lincoln Township Board of Trustees heard from the road department’s Kevin Stack during the board’s regular meeting this past week. Stack explained the 2026 project and sought the township’s support for the Red Arrow Linear Trail extension. He said for the county to qualify for a TAP Grant for the work, the local unit of government has to agree to take on maintenance of the trail.
Stack said when Red Arrow Highway is rebuilt, it’ll get the same configuration it has been given in South County in recent years.
“Standard design of what you’ve seen if you go in South County, through New Buffalo, through Chikaming, same design,” Stack said. “You’ve got a three-lane section of roadway, you’ve got the green space between the road, you’ve got a ten-foot path.”
Stack said having a three lane road with a center turn lane is provably safer than having four lanes of travel. He said the road diets Red Arrow has been put on have reduced rear-end crashes.
Trustees agreed to accept maintenance responsibilities for the trail. Township Supervisor Dick Stauffer told us with all the trails the township has worked on, this is reasonable.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for the township to participate in a collaborative trail project,” Stauffer said.
Stauffer said it’s about $5 per foot to maintain a trail, and that maintenance only has to be done every ten years or so.
Stack said the road department will reconstruct Red Arrow Highway from the city of Bridgman to the Cook plant next year. That work will include a new traffic light in front of the plant that the plant will pay for. The road department doesn’t consider that light necessary at all and wanted to remove it, but Cook objected.
Stack said the road department is working with businesses along the road to use their parking lots as trailheads for the roadside trail, which will eventually extend to John Beers Road,