I-75 Lane Closures at I-94 Starting 3/11/2015

[Scottathew]

Starting at 9am today, I-75 will have the left lane closed in both the northbound and southbound direction at I-94. During non-peak times the closure may be multiple lanes. The work is expected to be wrapped up by Thursday 3/18/2015.

This is due to a routine bridge inspection that revealed deteriorating concrete on the eastbound I-94 ramp. M-DOT will be installing 10 temporary bridge supports to buy them time to further evaluate the bridge and determine a permanent solution.

Below is the press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEWEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2015
CONTACT: Diane Cross, MDOT Office of Communications, 248-483-5127, crossd2@michigan.gov

MDOT to install temporary bridge supports
on I-75 under I-94 interchange

COUNTY:
Wayne

HIGHWAY:
I-75 under I-94 interchange

CITY:
Detroit

START DATE:
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
After 9 a.m.

ESTIMATED END DATE:
Thursday, March 19, 2015

PROJECT DETAILS:
The Michigan Department of Transportation [[MDOT) will be installing 10 temporary bridge supports on northbound and southbound I-75 under the eastbound I-94 ramp after routine bridge maintenance discovered deteriorated concrete on one of the supporting columns. The temporary supports will stabilize the bridge, keeping it safe to travel through this interchange while MDOT does further evaluation.

MDOT typically spends $10 million per year on temporary bridge supports, emergency repairs and preventive maintenance, and that dollar amount is growing due to deteriorating statewide bridge condition. "Without new investment, motorists will only see more temporary supports and plywood to support our aging bridges," said MDOT Director Kirk T. Steudle. "We can only be thankful that our robust inspection process works, and our dedicated bridge engineers are passionate about public safety."

TRAFFIC IMPACT:
The left lane of both northbound and southbound I-75 will be closed to allow for the installation of a concrete barrier to protect construction crews working under the bridge near heavy traffic. Motorists can expect occasional closures of the second left lane during non-peak hours in order to provide workers additional room to work safely.


Following installation of the temporary bridge supports, the left shoulders of northbound and southbound I-75 will remain closed.

I see a lot of people complain about government, M-DOT, etc... But these complainers never notice the awesome things that government does, like discovering these issues before they can cause harm.

Bridge collapses really do happen. We need to fund our roads and we can stop wasting money on temporary solutions.

I expect this closure to have significant impacts on traffic during rush hour, which of course is not as bad as having a bridge fall down.

[mikeg19]

"M-DOT will be installing 10 temporary bridge supports to buy them time to further evaluate the bridge and determine a permanent solution."

AKA, we don't have the money to fully fix this problem and this will be the first of many bandaids to prolong the lifespan of the bridge.

What's the over/under on how many years the "temporary" supports are there before any real fix happens? It's gonna be the I-75/University overpass all over again.

[ghettopalmetto]

"M-DOT will be installing 10 temporary bridge supports to buy them time to further evaluate the bridge and determine a permanent solution."

AKA, we don't have the money to fully fix this problem and this will be the first of many bandaids to prolong the lifespan of the bridge.

What's the over/under on how many years the "temporary" supports are there before any real fix happens? It's gonna be the I-75/University overpass all over again.

But hey, let's widen I-75 *and* I-94, so the maintenance backlog can grow ever-larger in the future!

[Funaho]

Since the I-94 widening will completely rebuild this interchange they're probably trying to figure out the minimum amount of repair they can do on it to make it last until it's rebuilt. It would be silly to spend a bunch of money on this only to tear it down a few years later.

[JBMcB]

I thought they had just rebuilt the supports when they completely resurfaced the I-94 bridge in the mid-90's. That whole project seemed like a debacle. A year after opening and the surface was already wrecked, and, IIRC, they had to redo a significant chunk of the guardrails and drainage that was installed improperly.

This was all before that tanker truck caught fire on I-75 and wrecked it all over again, that is.