Part of West Michigan Avenue at campus center closed

KALAMAZOO—Access to center of the Western Michigan University campus will be more difficult through July 19, as the city of Kalamazoo undertakes critical infrastructure work that will shut down Michigan Avenue from Western Avenue to North Dormitory Road.

Michigan Avenue, as it runs between the Student Recreation Center on the east and Parking Ramp No. 1 and Kalamazoo College athletic parking on the west, will be totally impenetrable during the period. The Michigan/North Dormitory Road intersection will remain open, and access to Parking Ramp No. 1 will be permitted from the North Dormitory entrance across from Ellsworth Hall. The Michigan/Western Avenue intersection also will remain open during the work.

As a result, access to the Oaklands, Seibert Administration Building, and the main entrance to the Bernhard Center will only be available by traveling clockwise on the campus ring road and turning right off North Dormitory.

The city will be making critical updates to a 1917 sewer line that once marked the city limit, but now is attached to 1950s-era sewer lines that continue up Michigan Avenue and onto the central campus. City officials say the excavation will cover the road width and be as deep as 17 feet.

WMU officials and Kalamazoo city personnel worked together closely to find a window of time that would be least disruptive to normal campus activity and minimize inconvenience to campus employees and visitors.