DETROIT (WXYZ) — Seeing potholes on a freeway bridge is one thing. Seeing a gaping hole and exposed rebar in the concrete to the ground below is more than a little unsettling.
Ralo Lott of Pop's Roadside towing service said the hole he took video of Wednesday was the size of a basketball.
"Unbelievable," he said. "Especially on a bridge like that ... that's what really blew my mind."
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The hole is on the shoulder of the freeway bridge of westbound I-96 where it connects to M-39 (the Southfield freeway).
Diane Cross from the Michigan Department of Transportation said crews were dispatched to repair the hole early Thursday after they saw still photos taken from Lott's video that had been posted to social media.
Crews used a fast-drying concrete that can cure in just a few hours. Cross said crews will return to the area in the next day or so to patch potholes in the same area of the 60-year-old bridge.
"It could be even worse," Lott said. "A car could have fell down or anything, you know."
The dozen ramps and bridges that make up the I-96/M-39 interchange is one of the most intricate in the entire state, according to Cross. Those same ramps and bridges were last inspected between the fall of 2021 and the fall of 2022, according to MDOT.
The public was recently asked to weigh in on a MDOT survey to help determine how the interchange might be reconfigured when it's replaced in a few years.
