The Michigan Department of Transportation director says 2024 will be the “summer of the orange barrel,” kicking off dozens of construction closures this weekend alone, including a shutdown of I-96 east-west lanes in Ionia County Monday.
“This is a huge reconstruction project. Between Grand Rapids and Lansing, it’s pretty bumpy so we’re going to fix that. It’s a multi-year project with about $105 million investment and we’re going to fix about eight miles of road between Bliss Road and Sunfield Road.”
John Richard is MDOT’s Grand Region media representative.
“There’s work on M6 and 96, There’s a big re-build on 131 in southern Kent County, and of course the ramp from NB131 to 96 by Alpine remains closed for the next couple of months.”
Plus, a re-build in Ottawa County on the I-196 Business Loop between Zeeland and Holland, and dozens of other projects.
And don’t expect work to end in the fall.
Many projects are scheduled into November.
Mild weather meant work continued into December last year.
Drivers can track every work zone in the state on a website called “MI-Drive.”
“It has crash info, it has speed date, it’s got traffic cameras for live look-ins so this is a great one-stop shopping place for all things road and bridges.”
Richard says its stressful for drivers to suddenly find delays of 15, 20 or 30 minutes on their commute.
” That can send people through the roof so knowing before you go, in my opinion, is huge. And peace of mind, you just can’t beat it.”
