PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. — This Weekend's Impact
**Friday Night:** Northbound Plainfield closed 9:30 PM - 6 AM Saturday *(delayed for Northview game)*
**Saturday Night:** Southbound Plainfield closed 7 PM - 6 AM Sunday
The conversation started with a simple scheduling conflict: Northview High School's annual Blackout Pediatric Cancer Game was set to coincide with a major road closure on Plainfield Avenue.
MDOT's John Richard didn't hesitate when I mentioned the timing problem during our routine construction update call.
"Maybe we can do something about that, Robb... delay the closure until like 10 o'clock or something?"
That off-the-cuff response became reality. The northbound Plainfield closure was pushed from 7 PM to 9:30 PM Friday night, giving families extra time to support pediatric cancer research without construction headaches.
While MDOT could adjust a temporary closure, the more significant community concerns involve permanent changes to Plainfield Avenue—particularly the new concrete medians that have sparked heated Facebook discussions.
"We've seen a lot of accident areas on Plainfield Avenue that needed to be addressed. Working with engineers and with our fire department, we were able to identify some of the worst and most common crash areas and put in medians to help protect some of those areas."*
Wyngarden said the medians represent a fundamental trade-off: short-term inconvenience for long-term safety improvements.
*"Change is going to take some adjustment. It's going to take folks to learn some new routes to their favorite stores... They may have to learn to turn in a little bit earlier, a little bit later than they usually do, to get into a driveway."
One of the most common criticisms on social media, basically, "Nobody asked us."
"Plainfield Township has been talking about improvements on the avenue for over five years now, and we held numerous public sessions," Wyngarden said. "This has been in the planning stages for a long time. We took public feedback. We asked them about certain configurations of the medians, asked them about the plant species."
*"The township will be in charge of the plants. We have a Corridor Improvement Authority that will be taking on the responsibility... We have a contract with the nursery that installed them, and for two years they're responsible for the plants to thrive."*
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