I-94 construction closures begin in Wayne County this weekend
(FOX 2) - MDOT has scheduled a heavy workload on I-94 this weekend.
"It's time for I-94 to get sufficient upgrades," said Rob Morosi, spokesman. "We're taking a freeway that mostly was built in the 1950s, it is very old and needs to be upgraded. That's what we're doing here."
That means get out the construction barrels and let the work begin.
"This weekend we will demolish the French and Concord bridges along I-94 so we will close it between Conner and I-75 for the weekend," Morosi said. "We demo those bridges, we clean up the demo, and open it up Monday morning for rush hour traffic."
As the bridges come down, drivers should expect I-94 to be closed in both directions from I-75 to Conner Street this weekend - and that's just the beginning.
"We begin all the way on east side and we continue all the way out to I-275," Morosi said. "These projects will attend to poor conditioned bridges, will attend to pavement that's deteriorating. We will look at ways to make freeway safer."
About 150,000 drivers will be impacted by the six projects on I-94. Many of those drivers impacted will be traffic from Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus.
"The freeway stays open there's no detour however we do reduce it by one lane and we will see backups occur," Morosi said. "Find another way to the airport if possible."
Or, you can allow yourself extra time to deal with potential backups.
"Mostly Monday through Friday we're going to do everything we can to keep as many lanes open as possible for people getting coming home from work," Morosi said.
But on the weekend well that's a different story.
"Investigate some alternate routes because there will be portions of the freeway east of Michigan Avenue that could be closed on the weekend," Morosi said.
The project is expected to go until November so when you see crews and their machinery, slow down.
"Watch out for the workers and please allow time so you are not surprised by all this," said Bill Erben, MDOT project manager.