Milan faces traffic issues after damage to railroad bridge closes part of US-23

MILAN, Mich. – A road closure due to a damaged railroad bridge is causing major traffic issues in Milan.

The Milan Fire Department is on the scene, blocked in by traffic off of US-23. The small town is struggling with the traffic load that exceeds anything anyone ever expected.

“Nightmare. It’s terrible. It’s all day. Every day. It’s just congested. It’s terrible. It’s really hard on the business because nobody wants to come down and get out because of the traffic,” store owner Rachelle McDaniel said.

The main street pedestrian shopping hub they worked so hard to create was successful until about a week ago.

“It’s dirty. You’re talking double semi tractor-trailers. It’s the worst I’ve ever seen it,” McDaniel said.

The Cone Street railroad trestle over US-23, used by the Ann Arbor Railroad, took a severe hit three weeks ago. A truck pulling construction equipment slammed into it, weakening support beams.

“The railroad, took a look at it and they said they didn’t feel that it was safe and so we took action,” MDOT spokesperson Aaron Jenkins said.

They closed nine miles of US-23 and detoured traffic. Downtown Milan is not an MDOT road, so it’s not the official detour.

“When they see the detour sign they look down at their phone and the GPS says to go this way, the detour goes that way, and I can go another direction and bypass all of this and they’re bypassing it,” Milan Mayor Dominic Hamden said.

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