Board of Regents Approves Construction of Kearsley Corridor

The University of Michigan Board of Regents today authorized construction of a roadway through the university's Flint campus. The estimated $1.9-million project, to be funded by a grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, will reconnect two sections of E. Kearsley Street. William Webb, assistant vice chancellor for administration at UM-Flint, says the 1,000-foot-long corridor will be a major step in connecting Flint's educational and cultural institutions. The project will offer a direct link between Kettering University, downtown Flint and UM-Flint on the west, and the Flint Cultural Center campus, Mott Community College and the Applewood estate — owned and operated by the Ruth Mott Foundation — on the east."The new corridor will be an asset on the campus, providing a safe roadway for community residents to use as they visit the Cultural Center, the university and the downtown area," Webb said. "We're pleased to partner with the C.S. Mott Foundation in the development of this important community asset."

"Flint's college and cultural institutions have long been vital to Genesee County," said William S. White, Mott Foundation president. "The East Kearsley Street project, by more effectively linking those resources, will support the community's effort to redesign, reinvent and rediscover its future."Construction of the roadway was a key recommendation of two independent studies on development and planning for the downtown area. Those studies were completed in 2003 by Sasaki Associates Inc., a planning and design firm with offices in Boston and San Francisco, and in 2005 by the New York-based Parsons Brinckerhoff, a planning, engineering and project management company.The corridor, scheduled to be completed this fall, will require the construction of new roadway surfaces, sidewalks, sewers and utility tunnel work, as well as landscaping and street lighting. Vibration dampening measures also will be taken to protect research equipment housed in the William R. Murchie Science Building, which is adjacent to the planned roadway. The Flint-based engineering firm of Rowe Inc. is designing the planned corridor. Webb says the university intends to begin seeking bids immediately for construction.The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, established in 1926 in Flint by an automotive pioneer, is a private philanthropy committed to supporting projects that promote a just, equitable and sustainable society. It supports nonprofit programs throughout the U.S. and, on a limited geographic basis, internationally. Grantmaking is focused in four programs: Civil Society, Environment, Flint Area and Pathways Out of Poverty. Besides Flint, offices are located in metropolitan Detroit, Johannesburg (South Africa) and London. The Foundation, with year-end assets of approximately $2.7 billion, made 527 grants totaling $108.7 million in 2007. For more information, visit Mott.org.