GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — It's no secret that US-131 in Grand Rapids can get backed up-- especially around rush hour.
"It's usually close to a gridlock, at least in my experience," said Grand Rapids resident Ian Lucas.
Lucas came to the Michigan Department of Transportations meeting on their plan to "Rebuild 131"
"Any of the questions that I've had have been brought up everything from bike lanes to, you know, shoulders on the side of the highway," said Lucas. "Yeah, all in all, it's been answered pretty simply for me."
MDOT is nearing the end their survey phase of getting input from community members on what they would like US-131, it's on and off ramps, and surrounding areas to look like.
The project will specifically be looking at the section of highway from 28th St. to Wealthy St.
"Some people want extra lanes, some people don't want extra lanes, but the common ground is everybody wants longer acceleration ramps, and de-acceleration rates still," said John Richard with MDOT. "So the on and off ramps are too short, and that stretch and some of the interchanges are too closely spaced together."
One of the options that MDOT is toying with, removing the on and off ramps at ML King Jr. St. to increase traffic efficiency.
"It's so close to Burton and Hall and if you remove that one it gives you more space to work.," said Richard. "But again, there's no projects in the near future. So we need to secure funding before we can have the dirt start flying."
It could be years down the road. Richard said they'll need more than $500 million before they can start construction.
"To put that in perspective, our whole annual budget for 13 counties is $100 million . And this stretch will cost us at least $600 million to rip out and replace."
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