Why would a township ask for one fewer lane on a road it also wants to repave? On Haslett Road between Park Lake Road and Marsh Road, the two requests come as a package. The federal money that would repave that stretch is a safety grant, and it can only be used if the road goes from two through lanes in each direction to one, with a turn lane in the middle.
On this corridor the lane change is the condition attached to the grant, and the grant covers 75 percent of the project.
The grant has a lane configuration written into it
On September 22, 2026, the Ingham County Board of Commissioners adopted Resolution #26-432, accepting $750,000 in FY 2028 Highway Safety Improvement Program funding for "Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon (RRFB) crossings" and a road diet on Haslett Road. The estimated total project cost is $1,000,178. The Road Fund covers a local match of up to $250,178, subject to appropriation in the FY 2028 budget.
At the August 31 public meeting, Township staff described it as "a 75/25 grant, so 75% federal funding, 25% local match." They said the road diet is one of the essential improvements required to unlock it. The meeting presentation spells out what happens if the lane change is dropped:
- The County and Township would lose 75 percent of the funding to resurface Haslett Road from Marsh Road to Park Lake Road.
- No one knows when other funding would be available to resurface it. The presentation noted there was no grant funding and no primary road resurfacing project this construction season.
- Without a center turn lane, there is no place to build pedestrian refuge islands, so the crosswalk improvements would be "significantly limited."
- The Township would try to build crosswalks without islands if the County permitted it, but residents would pay 100 percent of that through the existing Pathway Millage instead of about 20 to 25 percent with the grant.
Staff pointed to a precedent. The only resurfacing project in the past two years, on Mount Hope Road, was also paid for with a safety grant, and it came without new crosswalks or flashing beacons.
What would actually change on the pavement
At the meeting, the County still needed to hire a firm for design, and a Road Department speaker described the work so far as "a little bit of preliminary design." The details below come from that early concept, not a final plan.
| Element | Haslett Road today, Park Lake to Marsh | Preliminary concept |
|---|---|---|
| Through lanes | Two in each direction | One in each direction |
| Center lane | None | Dedicated turn lane |
| Lane widths | Not specified | Three 11-foot lanes |
| Bike lanes | None | Two 4.5-foot bike lanes |
| Approaches at Park Lake, Okemos and Marsh | Two lanes each direction | Stay two lanes each direction |
The center lane is what makes pedestrian refuge islands possible. The Township lists five candidate crosswalk locations along the corridor. The crossings could use flashing light systems, pedestrian refuge islands, or both.
- Westminster Way
- Near the Parkwood YMCA
- Boise Ile Drive
- Bayonne Avenue
- Benson Drive
At the meeting, the Road Department presentation referred to four island-protected RRFB locations, so the final count will be set in design.
Why the County thinks this stretch qualifies
Traffic volume decides whether a road diet is workable. Township staff gave the rule of thumb at the meeting. A road carrying under 15,000 vehicles a day is "a pretty clear candidate," 15,000 to 20,000 needs more study, and past 20,000 it becomes "precarious."
The 2026 counts in the presentation put both project segments well under that first line. Haslett Road from Okemos Road to Park Lake Road carried 12,119 vehicles a day, and Marsh Road to Okemos Road carried 10,481.
The crash history explains why the grant is a safety grant. The presentation cites two pedestrian crashes with serious injuries on this stretch since 2023. Police Chief Rick Grillo added the 2026 numbers at the meeting. There had been 10 crashes between Park Lake and Bay Avenue that year, and more than half were rear-end crashes in which "somebody is turning left and the people behind aren't paying attention." A dedicated turn lane takes those left-turning cars out of the through lane.
The Township also explained why Meridian has seen so many road diets. Its presentation says the roads were "oversized for anticipated population growth that did not occur." The Township acquired about 1,000 acres of parkland and another 1,000 acres of land preserves. Its wetland ordinance regulates wetlands down to half an acre, while the state's threshold is 5 acres. As an example of earlier planning, staff noted that the ELMWSA water plant was built in 1972 so it could be doubled to serve 200,000 residents in Meridian Township alone. The slide's conclusion: "We are essentially rightsizing our roads based on actual population growth."
What people said at the meeting
The August 31 meeting video shows a mixed room. One longtime Haslett Road resident raised concerns about merging, access for left turns, and speed limits that would stay the same. Another resident said the safety case had changed his view. He still pushed for signalized crossings and asked whether right-turn-only lanes could cut down on drivers racing at intersections. Another resident thanked officials and described crossing Haslett Road on foot as dangerous.
One speaker linked his objection directly to the funding. He said "federal funding is incentivizing the creation of bike lanes," which he did not think were needed on a road like Haslett Road, though he said he likes the off-road bike paths. He also argued that four lanes create gaps in traffic that help drivers turning out of neighborhoods such as Everett Woods.
The off-road pieces are arriving first
While the road diet waits for design, the Township has been building separated paths along the same corridor, and they connect to the planned crossings.
The American House Meridian Pathway opened on August 26, 2026. It connects the existing Inter-Urban/MSU to Lake Lansing Trail with the pathway on the south side of Haslett Road at Benson Drive. Building it took 790 square yards of concrete, 100 tons of aggregate, 520 feet of drain pipe, 775 square yards of steel retaining wall and a 37-foot boardwalk.
That path currently ends at the road. The Township plans to extend it north through Hillbrook Park to Lake Lansing Road "once a safe crossing can be established" at Haslett Road and Benson Drive. Benson Drive is also on the list of candidate crossings in the road diet project.
In 2027 the Township will build a pathway along the south side of Haslett Road from Okemos Road to Park Lake Road, funded in part by a Transportation Alternatives Program grant awarded in October 2025. When it's finished, a continuous pathway will run along both sides of Haslett Road from the East Lansing city limit to Copper Creek Drive and Bird Farm Lane.
At the Marsh Road end of the project, Haslett Village Square 2.0 is going up. The Township's October 19, 2026 Downtown Development Authority packet lists several buildings as under construction:
- The roughly 7,900-square-foot commercial rehabilitation at 1621 Haslett Road
- Building A at 1671 Haslett Road, a four-story building with 67 homes
- Buildings C-1 and C-2 at 1669 and 1667 Haslett Road, with 12 homes each
The same packet lists Building D-3, a 12-unit building at 1655 Haslett Road, as in building and plan review.
The calendar as presented
| When | Step |
|---|---|
| August 26, 2026 | American House Meridian Pathway opens |
| August 31, 2026 | Public meeting on the road diet and crossings |
| September 22, 2026 | County accepts $750,000 in FY 2028 safety funding |
| Fall 2026 | Road Department to issue an RFP and hire design and inspection services |
| 2027 | Design; south-side pathway from Okemos Road to Park Lake Road |
| 2028 | Construction, expected to take 6 to 9 weeks |
The lane striping, crossing sites and island designs will be settled during the 2027 design year. The Township's project page posts updates as they come, and the full meeting presentation is linked there.
If your home is on or near Haslett Road and you'd like to know how the corridor changes could affect your plans to stay, sell or move nearby, The Whybrew Project is happy to talk through it with you. We follow these Meridian Township projects closely because our clients live along them. Schedule an appointment whenever it suits you.