WAYNE COUNTY, Mich. – Traffic near the I-275 exchange is expected to crawl.
Jessica Johnston of Westland said she doesn’t want to see another orange barrel.
“No, thank you,” she said. “No, not at all.”
She’s one of the roughly 125,000 drivers who use M-14/I-96 every day.
Close to five miles of barrels will soon affect the area.
The Michigan Department of Transportation recently announced a two-year rebuilding project will affect M-14/I-96 near the I-275 interchange beginning next month in the city of Livonia and Plymouth Township.
Read: What to expect in upcoming M-14/I-96 reconstruction project
“Like Gov. Whitmer said, ‘Fix the damn roads.’ You have to have it done, it’s going to cause chaos and confusion,” said Malisha McDaniel of Plymouth Township.
According to MDOT, there will be one lane open on eastbound M-14 from Beck to Levan roads during this year, with all eastbound entrance and exit ramps closed from Beck to Newburgh roads.
The I-275 ramps to eastbound I-96 will be closed for nearly two months while the other ramps will be closed through the end of the year.
“That’s tough,” said Chris Fricke of Plymouth. “You’d like to see two lanes open but how are they going to do that when they’re doing construction? Something’s got to close, right?”
Westbound traffic will have two lanes open and all westbound exit ramps will remain open, officials said.
Unlike the other major road project on I-696 in Oakland County, a spokesperson told Local 4 that traffic will move in both directions on the same route.
Still, drivers can expect east and west routes in Wayne and Oakland counties to feel the impact.
In the following year, the project will rebuild the westbound lanes and there will be two lanes open in each direction with numerous ramp closures.
MDOT is scheduled to hold a public meeting to discuss the Wayne County project on Wednesday, Feb. 12 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Plymouth Township Hall.
