August 5, 2009 -- The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is helping put people back to work and is asking the motoring public for patience as drivers will begin to see more orange barrels pop up on highways across the southeast portion of the state. An aggressive road construction schedule, fueled in large part by federal funds received from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), will result in numerous construction zones that will run through the end of summer and continue into 2010.
"We know that creating jobs and improving our transportation system with this number of projects will cause inconvenience at the state, county and local levels. We feel this is a small price to pay for this influx of federal dollars that will put Michigan workers back on the job," said State Transportation Director Kirk T. Steudle. "The ARRA legislation offers us the opportunity to invest more than $800 million in road and bridge improvements across Michigan with no state match required."
ARRA will provide more than $246 million to be invested in the Metro Region alone, with another $155 million to be spent on state roads and bridges in the University Region. This is above the $347 million in road and bridge investments slated for both regions in 2009.
Corridors under construction, or scheduled to have projects underway soon, include:
- I-94 between the Jackson County line and Chelsea in Washtenaw County
- US-23 north of I-96 in Livingston County
- I-96 between US-127 and M-52 in Ingham County
- US-127 between I-96 and I-496 in Ingham County
- I-96/I-696 between Beck Road and I-94 in Oakland and Macomb counties
- M-14 over the Rouge River in Wayne County
- I-96 between Livernois and Davison avenues in the city of Detroit
- M-59 between Crooks and Ryan roads in Oakland County
- I-69 between Miller Road and the Lapeer County line in St. Clair County
For up-to-date information on projects, go to the list of statewide lane closures at: www.michigan.gov/drive. Follow MDOT at www.twitter.com/MichiganDOT or visit the "Michigan Department of Transportation" page on Facebook and become a fan.
MDOT: Working to improve our state roads and bridges.
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