The Michigan Department of Transportation is planning to update the way traffic flows on part of M-139 in Benton Harbor. City commissioners signed off on the plan this week to change the one-way sections of the road to both ways. MDOT spokesperson Nick Schirripa tells us the agency presented multiple plans to city and township officials.
“The one I think everybody’s landed on is we will make M-139 two-way from Empire Avenue all the way up along what is now Martin Luther King Drive to East Main Street, and Fair Avenue also will be two-way,” Schirripa said. “We’ll have to reconfigure how they connect at the southern point. Essentially, Fair Avenue will turn into M-139.”
Schirripa says the current traffic patterns were established in the 1970s, and with MDOT planning to repave a 4.4 mile section of M-139 in 2026, the opportunity arose to update them. He says this will make things simpler and safer for drivers. Once the work is done, Martin Luther King Drive will be part of M-139 and Fair Avenue will be given to the city of Benton Harbor as a local street. Meanwhile, MDOT will be repaving M-139 all the way from the St. Joseph River to the I-94 Business Loop. Schirripa says Benton Township will also have to sign off on the plan.
