Brace yourself for the last rebuild of Caniff, or maybe not

Workers get the Caniff alley, on the south side from Gallagher to Jos. Campau, ready for repaving. This is the first step in the last segment of Caniff being repaved from Jos. Campau to Conant, which may happen in the fall or next spring.

By Charles Sercombe
Call it a dress rehearsal for “the big one.”
This week, the repaving of the Caniff alley on the south side of Caniff, which runs from Gallagher to the Jos. Campau alley, began.
It’s part of an aggressive campaign by the city to do what city officials have previously failed, for decades, to do.
It’s also been a particular pet project for Councilmember Mohammed Alsomiri, who has championed expanding the city’s alley repaving project by dipping deeper into city funds, to get the job done sooner.
The council allocated $907,500 for alley repaving this year. This portion of the Caniff alley repaving cost an additional $300,000, which required the city to dip into its surplus budget instead of its annual state-funded street repair fund.
This specific portion of Caniff’s alley is estimated to take about five weeks total to complete and for the concrete to cure.
In the meantime, businesses and households have to adapt to no longer having their garbage collected in the alley to having it done out on Caniff.
While this may be a minor inconvenience to those living or conducting business along that stretch of Caniff, brace yourself for the next project coming there.
It’s still not settled yet, but the last leg of the repaving of Caniff, which started in 2021, in segments, was scheduled to begin this summer.
Plans called for tearing up the street’s concrete from Jos. Campau to Conant, and then completely repaving it – a process that can take four to five months.
That project now appears to be on hold. Or is it?
City Manager Max Garbarino said there is still the chance work could begin this fall and be over before winter settles in, but he concedes the city’s engineer, Hennesey, is saying that staring in spring would be better.
The holdup was the fault of the state, specifically the state’s Historic Preservation Office.
According to John Hennessey, of Hennessy Engineers, this stretch of Caniff has historic buildings along it, and the Preservation Office has to make sure those won’t be affected by the reconstruction.
He said that office has also held up other projects in other communities.
“The State of Michigan has completely roadblocked us, and it’s out of our control,” Hennessy said.
He added that “we’ll do everything we can, and see if we can’t push them along. … But it might be better to start the project in the spring.”
Posted Aug. 16, 2024