This map shows the University of Michigan's plan for creating a vehicle-free zone around Michigan Stadium during football games. The red lines represent hard closures with police barricades, the blue lines represent soft closures with police allowing controlled local traffic, the yellow lines represent soft closures, and the pink areas represent street closures.
City of Ann Arbor
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In case you haven't gotten the memo already, Main Street will completely shut down in front of the Big House for Saturday's football game in Ann Arbor.
Exactly how that will play out remains to be seen, but don't be surprised if you see police redirecting traffic around the stadium using Stadium and Pauline boulevards and Seventh Street.
This scene is expected to repeat itself during all home football games this fall as the University of Michigan puts in place a plan to create a vehicle-free zone around the stadium.
Main Street will be closed between Pauline and Stadium boulevards both before and during, though not after, University of Michigan football games this fall, starting with Saturday's game.
Daniel Brenner | AnnArbor.com
Northbound Main Street will close three hours before the game and remain closed until the end of the game. Southbound Main Street will close starting one hour before the game, a compromise the city made to allow patrons to access neighborhood parking areas west of the stadium.
The game starts at 3:30 p.m.
Provisions will be made for properties — including lawn parking areas — with access exclusively on Main Street, according to police.
In addition to barricades preventing motorists from driving down Main Street between Pauline and Stadium, there will be some "soft closures" in the neighborhood just west of the stadium, with police allowing controlled local traffic on those streets.
The City Council voted 7-4 earlier this month to authorize the street closings in the vicinity of Michigan Stadium, a move supported by Police Chief John Seto.
Seto said he's on the scene during all home football games and he'll be focusing on the Main Street closure for the first few games and evaluating how it's working out.
A community meeting with the Ann Arbor Police Department is scheduled for 6 p.m. Sept. 24 at Pioneer High School to discuss any potential modifications to the road closures. Seto and other officials will be on hand at that meeting to collect feedback from the public.
Questions also can be submitted to police@a2gov.org.
In addition to Main Street, the university's plan includes closing Keech Street between Main and Greene streets, limiting access to parking permit holders on Greene Street from Hoover to Keech streets; and closing the westbound right-turn lane (onto Main Street) on Stadium Boulevard.
After the game — or at the discretion of the city's police chief — barricades will be removed as soon as practical and Main Street will be open for traffic leaving town.
If you want to mark your calendars, this year's home games fall on Aug. 31, Sept. 7, Sept. 14, Oct. 5, Oct. 19, Nov. 9 and Nov. 30.
Ryan J. Stanton covers government and politics for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529. You also can follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's email newsletters.