OAKLAND COUNTY, Mich. – While snow has turned roads treacherous all over Metro Detroit, this morning, there was a different but familiar problem along I-75: potholes.
Another batch of drivers paid the price for driving on a crumbling stretch that forced emergency repairs last week. It's a stretch of road that's about 7 miles long.
Northbound I-75 between 13 Mile and Crooks roads was a danger zone as drivers dodged multiple potholes on their morning commute.
"That's where the roadway is aging to the point of what we knew it was time which is why the project starts in early March," Diane Cross, with the Michigan Department of Transportation, said.
Jason Flint was on his way into work when he got two flat tires after hitting a pothole at I-75 and 14 Mile Road.
"Because at first, I thought it was just one tire, and we got out and got some snow out of the way and saw we had two flat tires," Flint said.
Roadside assistance was busy all morning in that area.
"I mean, I got roadside assistance. They responded pretty quickly, it could be a lot worse," Flint said.
The potholes were patched up, but the area still isn't safe; those potholes could come back.
"Anything we put in the ground is definitely temporary as long as we warm up and have more of these potholes popping up between now and early March when we close the road," Cross said.
In March, the northbound lanes will close and northbound I-75 traffic will share the southbound lanes. It's all part of the project to modernize I-75.
The northbound lanes of I-75 in Oakland County are expected to be finished at the end of 2019 and work on the southbound lanes of I-75 is expected to start in 2020.