DETROIT – The Michigan Department of Transportation on Tuesday said it sifted through nearly 4,000 survey responses from the public to come up with a plan for lane closures during next year's I-275 project in Wayne and Oakland counties.
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The I-275 repair project is scheduled to begin next spring in the communities of Livonia, Novi, and Farmington Hills. This $70 to $80 million investment will take place between 5 Mile Road and the I-96/I-696/M-5 interchange, and include replacing 13 miles of concrete pavement, repairing entrance and exit ramps at each "Mile" road, repairing 16 bridges, improving drainage, and intelligent transportation systems (ITS) work.
MDOT said it looked at 22 possible road closure configurations, detours, lane shifts, and other traffic control options (barrels, barriers, signs, manpower, etc.). These configurations were narrowed to the three best options and were offered in the survey, which was conducted online earlier this month.
The most popular option (with 87 percent) of the responses was to close and detour one direction of I-275 at a time, taking only one construction season -- $1.04 million in traffic control costs.
"Eighty-nine percent said rip the band-aid off quick," said MDOT spokeswoman Diane Cross. "Just get it over with, whatever it takes."
The other options were:
Keep northbound I-275 during the entire project with traffic shifted as work is performed and detour southbound I-275 traffic, taking two construction seasons -- $2.87 million in traffic control costs.
Have both directions of traffic maintained on one side of the freeway with a barrier wall separating traffic, taking two construction seasons -- $4.85 million in traffic control costs.
A public meeting will be scheduled for early November that will allow the public to learn more about the project and speak to MDOT officials.
General feedback on the construction project can be left online at www.research.net/r/i275feedback.
Check: Local 4 traffic maps