I had hopes of getting out to a stamp on my “to do” list for today’s entry. It’s one I spotted on a walk quite a while ago, on Hickory Street. It looked old and possibly novel, but it was too muddy to read. I thought if I got lucky someone might have shoveled the sidewalk, leaving a bit of snow in the stamp, because sometimes that makes the old ones more legible. Unfortunately, my plans came to nought due to having a very poor night’s sleep that meant I had to nap this afternoon and left me walking after dark again. So instead, I’ll just have to give you a bit of sidewalk news I ran across recently.

A segment of I-496 (the Olds Freeway) between Lansing Road and the Grand River will be undergoing a big reconstruction project that will start in April and run through the rest of 2022 and into 2023. 496 will be completely closed from June to November of this year. The reason I took notice of this for the sidewalk blog is this statement in an article from WLNS.com: “The project aims to widen I-496, resurface sidewalks, and upgrade ramps along the I-496 service drives between M-99 and Grand River.” (This is a somewhat confusing statement as it suggests Grand River Avenue, but 496 doesn’t touch Grand River. They meant the Grand River, as in the body of water.) By “the I-496 service drives” I have to assume they mean (at least in part) Malcolm X Street. Two important points for sidewalk fans. First, those new sidewalks had better be stamped, although the city’s recent track record with enforcing the sidewalk marking code has been very poor. Second, I had better get out there before April and start taking some sidewalk photos.