WARREN, Mich. – The I-696 construction project has been a huge inconvenience for Metro Detroit drivers since the work began on the freeway last spring.
In Warren, the project has sent rodents, particularly rats, scurrying into neighborhoods. The city has put out bait to make sure the rodents aren't coming into the neighborhoods, and it appears to be working.
Resident Terry Carmichael is thankful for not finding the pests running around. The city of Warren is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to bait the rats that are getting displaced during the construction.
"I just hope this thing ends pretty soon, because the traffic is miserable," Carmichael said.
Most people haven't seen an influx of the rats.
"For the most part, yeah. It's not working 100 percent, because I still see rats here and there," resident Brandon Secrist said.
Mayor Jim Fouts believes without the $275,000 he allocated for catching the rats, there would be more than just one or two rats in those neighborhoods bordering I-696.
"I issued an order that we spend an additional $125,000 dollars to have an additional 128 bait boxes," Fouts said.
That means Warren is spending $400,000 to prevent an issue of rats roaming.