Mack-Vernier Intersection progress proceeds in time for back to school
Posted on August 28, 2025
Students in Grosse Pointe Woods may still have to worry more about homework and tests — but they won’t need to worry as much about hazardous traffic patterns while crossing the street.
For the past several months, Anderson, Eckstein & Westrick, Inc., has been hard at work on a project to reconfigure traffic at the intersection of Vernier and Mack roads to make the situation safer.
The intersection, located in Grosse Pointe Woods, previously allowed vehicles to make direct left turns at multiple points in the intersection. imperiling motorists and pedestrians, especially youth who walk to nearby schools and a library.
AEW Executive Vice President Scott Lockwood called the original Mack-Vernier intersection configuration “quite antiquated,” especially in an area home to multiple schools and a library.
“This intersection, in the mornings and afternoons, has hundreds of kids and the school crossing people,” Lockwood explained. “You have all these people trying to make these uncommon left turns, and you have kids on every corner walking along the street. … So, these antiquated left movements are unexpected and can be very dangerous.”
Thanks to AEW’s traffic engineering design, the new and revised traffic configuration forbids any direct left turns at Mack and Vernier and requires motorists to surpass the intersection and then make a Michigan left.
In order to minimize disruption, work was mainly done over the summer during a time when schools were not in session. In addition, the project needed to be done in multiple phases to best accommodate vehicular and pedestrian traffic patterns.
The Mack-Vernier project’s construction cost is estimated at $1.81 million.
Grosse Pointe Woods City Administrator Frank Schulte said the Mack-Vernier intersection has the highest number of accidents in the City.
“Prohibiting left turns at this intersection and allowing only right turns, along with the implementation of all traffic signal projects, will significantly enhance driver safety in our community,” Schulte said.
“Additionally, the close proximity to three nearby schools — one elementary, one middle, and one high school — makes this area particularly busy with pedestrians. As a result, these improvements will make it much safer for children walking to and from school.”
AEW engineers say the intersection project should be complete by this fall.