WAYNE COUNTY, Mich. (WXYZ) — Drivers who take I-275 will soon be seeing orange barrels and likely some traffic delays.
Starting at the beginning of July, there will only be two lanes open on I-275 from 6 Mile to Eureka. There will only be one lane open from Eureka to Will Carlton.
Originally, the Michigan Department of Transportation did not have plans to close down ramps at I-275 and I-94, but those plans have changed.
This year, there are plans to close down three ramps – Southbound I-275 to eastbound I-94, westbound I-94 to southbound I-275 and northbound I-275 to westbound I-94.
Original plans called for ramps not to close to accommodate both drivers heading to the airport. However, it was determined the bridge widths are too narrow to perform construction safely and maintain one lane of traffic.
There are still plans in the works to build temporary ramps, but that won’t be happening this year in time for these planned ramp closures.
This is the start of a three-to-four-year construction project with a plan to rebuild 24 miles of the highway and 65 bridges.
“This has been an ongoing issue for the past ten years or so, you’ll see a lot of blowouts in the pavement and we have had our maintenance forces go out there do some concrete patching but those patches keep blowing out so more invasive fix is needed, therefore we are going to build from the ground up,” said Jeff Horne, Construction Project Manager for MDOT.
There is a virtual public meeting for the public Tuesday night at 5 p.m. For more information, click here.
