And It Begins: I-75 To Be Widened In Oakland County

[mikeg19]

As if you didn't already wanna kill yourself driving north on 75 during rush hour, here comes the beginning widening and reconstruction of 3.3 miles.

The scariest part is this quote:“At this time, due to funding, we are looking at about a 20-year build out, so we have it split up into different segments,” Morosi said, adding some portions could take two to three years to complete.

So the entire build of this project from 8 Mile to M-59 won't be complete until 2036. Just in time for us to start reconstructing the beginning portion all over again.

The 20 year Orange Barrel nightmare commences this spring.

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/new...ning/80206596/

[AarunFast]

TWENTY YEARS!

Such backwards thinking here, but not surprising. Calling 75 "Oakland County's Main Street" shows exactly how out of touch he is with reality and modern transportation. What a horrible waste of money.

[The Nerd]

The home builders and leaders of Livingston and Genesee counties thank Oakland County for making it easier to send "excess" OC jobs and residents up north and west . Hazel Park and Oak Park, among others, not so much.

[Bham1982]

Great news, long overdo, and should be great for the metro area's economy.

Of course, the armchair transit experts on DYes will lament that we didn't build a subway line to Clarkston, with 10x the cost and 1/20 the ridership.

[dtowncitylover]

Great news, long overdo, and should be great for the metro area's economy.

Of course, the armchair transit experts on DYes will lament that we didn't build a subway line to Clarkston, with 10x the cost and 1/20 the ridership.

Says the armchair know-it-all. Third posting, yup didn't take you long at all. I'm surprised you didn't post it.

I'm wondering why a widened freeway in a population stagnant area would be good for the economy. I'm not against redoing the freeway, interchanges, and bridges, but to widen it when the population has not grown makes no sense to me. We don't have horrendous traffic and widening a freeway isn't going to relieve congestion. Go ask those on the Dan Ryan or any LA freeway.

While I could espouse any transit argument [[especially commuter rail) against this, I don't need to because the plan unbelievable stupid on its own.

LBP must have really jizzed in his pants when he called 75 "Oakland County's Main Street".

[313WX]

TWENTY YEARS!

Such backwards thinking here, but not surprising. Calling 75 "Oakland County's Main Street" shows exactly how out of touch he is with reality and modern transportation. What a horrible waste of money.

^^^This.

Says the armchair know-it-all. Third posting, yup didn't take you long at all. I'm surprised you didn't post it.

I'm wondering why a widened freeway in a population stagnant area would be good for the economy. I'm not against redoing the freeway, interchanges, and bridges, but to widen it when the population has not grown makes no sense to me. We don't have horrendous traffic and widening a freeway isn't going to relieve congestion. Go ask those on the Dan Ryan or any LA freeway.

While I could espouse any transit argument [[especially commuter rail) against this, I don't need to because the plan unbelievable stupid on its own.

LBP must have really jizzed in his pants when the called 75 "Oakland County's Main Street".

^^^And especially this.

[erikd]

Great news, long overdo, and should be great for the metro area's economy.

Of course, the armchair transit experts on DYes will lament that we didn't build a subway line to Clarkston, with 10x the cost and 1/20 the ridership.

Bham,

I'm surprised that you are so supportive of this freeway expansion, as I seem to recall you criticizing freeway expansion in the past. We have discussed induced demand at length on this forum, so I would think that you would know that this freeway expansion is unlikely to reduce traffic congestion on I75. I'm actually interested why you think that this is a good use of a billion dollars.

[Scottathew]

why you think that this is a good use of a billion dollars.

Keep in mind, that even if they don't add lanes, they still need to redo the freeway and bridges. Even if no lanes are added, they should still fix the Square Lake interchange configuration, do the 11-Mile exit ramp braiding, as well as make the 12 Mile interchange improvements. Also, the drainage is being fixed\redone. So even if you take the additional lane out of the project, it's still going to cost a very significant amount of money.

I like this project, but I would say that 4 lanes is the max. No more lanes for I-75 in Oakland county after this.

After this project the focus needs to be mass transit.

Limiting freeway expansion will help the region be more dense, and stop the abandoning of Detroit and the inner-ring. At some point, we have to actually fix the problems with crimes and failing schools, not just move out to the next exo-burb and commute to Southfield and Detroit.

I'm part of the problem, I moved from Warren to Rochester Hills and use 75 to get to my downtown Detroit job.

[Bham1982]

Bham,

I'm surprised that you are so supportive of this freeway expansion, as I seem to recall you criticizing freeway expansion in the past. We have discussed induced demand at length on this forum, so I would think that you would know that this freeway expansion is unlikely to reduce traffic congestion on I75. I'm actually interested why you think that this is a good use of a billion dollars.

The freeway is congested and increasing capacity will allow more drivers to use the freeway, thus enabling regional mobility. No economist disputes that increased regional mobility aids economic growth.

Freeways are also much safer than surface streets, and if you get people commuting on freeways, you're reducing car accidents and saving some lives, while giving people a wider potential circumference of job opportunities.

If the freeway, at some point, becomes completely congested again, that's a sign of success. It means that people are actually utilizing the investment to maximum capacity. Thriving areas should have congested freeways at rush hour.

And it isn't feeding sprawl as the entire corridor is already suburbanized. There's sprawl along I-75 all the way through Oakland at this point, and the northernmost townships aren't particularly pro-growth anyways. You aren't going to get massive development north of Great Lakes Crossing. Most of the recent growth in Oakland is to the west [[which is why I-96, at some point will be need to be expanded; I-96 between Southfield and Brighton is much worse than I-75).

[Scottathew]

Calling 75 "Oakland County's Main Street" shows exactly how out of touch he is with reality and modern transportation.

I'm excited for the project, but I sure did facepalm when I read the "Main Street" comment...

[401don]

Not being a Mich. resident I probably shouldn't weigh in here, but what the hell. I'm totally amazed that $ would be allocated to this when so many other roads in Mich. need funding. Yes, I-75 slows your drive for 10 min. approaching 94, 96, etc. during rush hour but it is in no way in need of this massive money grabbing, time consuming expense. The fact that it's being phased in over such a time period confirms there's not enough need or money or both right now.

[DeLemur]

At least a better and more needed project than the I-94 expansion. That is a complete waste. Gridlock on 75 is much worse than the shorter 94 section of gridlock.

[Gistok]

At least a better and more needed project than the I-94 expansion. That is a complete waste. Gridlock on 75 is much worse than the shorter 94 section of gridlock.

In case you haven't noticed, the I-94 expansion is by no means dead. The Van Dyke and Woodward I-94 bridges have both been rebuilt to handle wider freeway roadways. This will continue as all the freeway bridges between I-96 and Conner Ave. are in great need of rebuilding... one at a time. So like the I-75 widening, the first phase of I-94 widening is slowly moving along.

[AarunFast]

I love how they tossed that vague technology bullet point in there, as if that will ever happen or ever be useful. We can hardly keep the streetlights functioning, let alone some pointless "connected freeway."

[DTWflyer]

A few things:
- I-75 is due for a major reconstruction through most of Oakland County, additional lane or not. The original road and bridges from the 1960s/early 70's are showing their age. In many of the areas adding the additional lane makes sense to do at the same time. Basically filling in the median through much of the Troy section. South of 12 Mile is a lot more expensive and requires additional right-of-way

- The I-75/Square Lake interchange is in need of a major redesign, either way. The traffic entering from the Square Lake connector on to NB I75 is a left hand merge and you have a significant amount of traffic cutting across 4 lanes of traffic in a 1 mile section to be able to exit on to M-59. Redesigning this as a right-side entry eliminates all the lane cutting traffic to M-59. [[While they are at it they need to re-do I-75 & M-59 which might be one of the scariest interchanges in Metro Detroit with the loop ramps and merging traffic adjacent to fast-moving through traffic)

- The time frame is insanely long. But the funding issue and priority of other projects I guess requires them to spread it out. Hopefully they get more than 15 years out of it, better than I-275

- The HOV lane seems silly. Outside of peak rush hour the 4th lane isn't needed anyways.

LBP, you're 77 and out of touch with anyone under the age of 50. Its time to pass the torch dude.

[Cincinnati_Kid]

LBP says Oakland County is the best run and financially fit county in the US. "Don't shoot the messenger"

[maverick1]

LBP says Oakland County is the best run and financially fit county in the US. "Don't shoot the messenger"

How hard is it to do that when your county is the bedroom community for most of the middle-age white collar professionals in the tri-county area?

[Bham1982]

How hard is it to do that when your county is the bedroom community for most of the middle-age white collar professionals in the tri-county area?

This wasn't always the case. Oakland County as the region's wealth center is a very recent phenomenon, concurrent with Patterson as County Exec.

Decades ago people would have fallen out of their chair laughing if you told them property in Novi and Rochester Hills [[nowhere near the wealthiest parts of OC) would be far more expensive than the Pointes and Palmer Woods. Those were farm pastures and hick towns. They would think you're insane if you claimed Royal Oak bungalows cost the same as Grosse Pointe colonials. Working class dudes belonging to the Elks Club lived in RO; the country club swells lived in the Pointes.

Granted, there's a correlation-causation issue, but it would be hard to claim that his management is irrelevent to the residential desirability of Oakland County. He may be boorish and kind of a jerk, and I don't share his politics, but the county is extremely healthy, and is the state's undisputed wealth and growth engine.

[erikd]

This wasn't always the case. Oakland County as the region's wealth center is a very recent phenomenon, concurrent with Patterson as County Exec.

Decades ago people would have fallen out of their chair laughing if you told them property in Novi and Rochester Hills [[nowhere near the wealthiest parts of OC) would be far more expensive than the Pointes and Palmer Woods. Those were farm pastures and hick towns. They would think you're insane if you claimed Royal Oak bungalows cost the same as Grosse Pointe colonials. Working class dudes belonging to the Elks Club lived in RO; the country club swells lived in the Pointes.

Granted, there's a correlation-causation issue, but it would be hard to claim that his management is irrelevent to the residential desirability of Oakland County. He may be boorish and kind of a jerk, and I don't share his politics, but the county is extremely healthy, and is the state's undisputed wealth and growth engine.

Growth engine? What growth? Metro Detroit [[MSA) had a population of 4,490,902 in 1970, 4,266,654 in 1990, and 4,296,250 in 2010. How is that growth? To be sure, Oakland County had a tremendous increase in population during this period, but it was mirrored by, and largely fueled with, the simultaneous decline of population in Detroit. That isn't growth, it's displacement.

[Bham1982]

Growth engine? What growth? Metro Detroit [[MSA) had a population of 4,490,902 in 1970, 4,266,654 in 1990, and 4,296,250 in 2010. How is that growth? To be sure, Oakland County had a tremendous increase in population during this period, but it was mirrored by, and largely fueled with, the simultaneous decline of population in Detroit. That isn't growth, it's displacement.

No, it's pure growth. The Oakland County executive isn't responsible for adjacent counties; he's only responsible for Oakland County. The fact that other counties haven't performed as well over time is hardly Oakland County's fault. Wayne County could elect slightly less idiotic/corrupt leadership and probably wouldn't be in the shape it's in.

Metro Detroit, BTW, is currently growing, not that it's particularly relevent. In fact it's growing faster than basically any major rust belt metro. I care about 2016, not 1970 or 1980. It probably has almost nothing to do with Brooks, though, as the region is completely tied to the auto industry's fortunes.

[AarunFast]

"Like Millennials, More Older Americans Steering Away From Driving"

http://www.npr.org/2016/02/11/466178523/like-millennials-more-older-americans-steering-away-from-driving?

[mikefmich]

It seems like just yesterday they re-did the Square Lake-I-75 area, and other chunks of 75 north of 8 Mi. Someone said 20 yrs, and they will start over again. Will it even take that long to be needed again?

As to Brooks jizzing his pants, I dunno he might be past that part of his life.

[DTWflyer]

They have done asphalt overlays on that stretch of I-75 within the past 5-10 years, but that is more or less periodic maintenance to rehab the road but its in poor shape again.

[softailrider]

They have done asphalt overlays on that stretch of I-75 within the past 5-10 years, but that is more or less periodic maintenance to rehab the road but its in poor shape again.

Call it an overlay, call it maintenance, call it whatever. They fix the same streets every year or two. Every summer it's orange barrels and delays. I call it bullshit.

[EastsideAl]

Call it an overlay, call it maintenance, call it whatever. They fix the same streets every year or two. Every summer it's orange barrels and delays. I call it bullshit.

It's not bullshit to the DOT's favored contractors, it's just mo' money on the gravy freeway baby.