22 | DECEMBER 9 • 2021
OUR COMMUNITY
L
ooking east from Church
Street north of 10 Mile
Road, you can see a
gleaming playground. Around
the playground is a wide
grass-covered field with curved
paved walkways shaded by
low trees. You could enjoy this
bucolic scenery without sus-
pecting that a major highway
runs right beneath your feet.
You are standing on an excep-
tionally wide bridge, an over-
pass of the I-696 freeway, but it
feels like standing in a park.
That feeling is no accident; it
is a feat of civil and social engi-
neering.
Fifty years ago, the planned
route for the new freeway would
rip through the heart of the
Jewish neighborhood centered
in Oak Park. In 1979, activists
challenged the government to
accommodate the needs of its
Orthodox Jewish community.
They needed connectivity.
Observant Jews from either side
of the highway needed to get
to the other side easily, on foot,
every festival and Shabbat. The
highway threatened to destroy
one or both sides of the neigh-
borhood.
The wide overpass, opened in
1988, solved that social problem
beautifully and continues to do
so. The Jewish community has
not abandoned this neighbor-
hood. On any Shabbat, families
stroll from one side to the other
of Victoria Park. Parents sit on
benches around the playground
and watch their children at play.
The civil engineering solu-
tion has not lasted as well. The
unusual and innovative wide
bridge covered in soil, has had
persistent drainage problems.
An extensive remodel of the
bridge covering, undertaken
in 2016, did not end the prob-
lem. In the winter, icicles hang
down from the underside of the
bridge, threatening to fall onto
the traffic below.
At a virtual public meeting
on Thursday, Nov. 18, pre-
senter Matt Chynoweth, chief
bridge engineer at the Michigan
Department of Transportation
(MDOT), explained that the
bridge “is not dangerous, but
that it is reaching the end of its
useful life.
”
Chynoweth explained that
the process of demolishing and
rebuilding will take place in
segments so pedestrians and
motorists will still be able to get
from one side to the other even
MDOT
MDOT experts seek community input into 1-696 bridge renovation.
Replacing the I-696 Plaza
LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Icicles hang down from the bridge
over the highway, presenting a
danger to traffic.
A view from above
of Victoria Park and
Church Street.