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

**mikeg19** · February-11-16, 01:36 PM

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** · February-11-16, 02:04 PM

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** · February-11-16, 03:37 PM

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** · February-11-16, 03:59 PM

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** · February-11-16, 05:10 PM

Originally Posted by 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.

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** · February-11-16, 05:58 PM

Originally Posted by 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.

^^^This.

Originally Posted by dtowncitylover

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.

**401don** · February-11-16, 06:46 PM

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.

**Scottathew** · February-11-16, 08:34 PM

Originally Posted by AarunFast

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...

**DeLemur** · February-11-16, 09:27 PM

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.

**AarunFast** · February-11-16, 09:28 PM

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** · February-11-16, 09:41 PM

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** · February-12-16, 12:58 AM

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

**Gistok** · February-12-16, 04:21 AM

Originally Posted by 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.

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.

**maverick1** · February-12-16, 11:32 AM

Originally Posted by Cincinnati_Kid

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?

**AarunFast** · February-12-16, 01:24 PM

"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?

**Bham1982** · February-12-16, 01:31 PM

Originally Posted by maverick1

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.

**mikefmich** · February-14-16, 03:29 PM

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** · February-14-16, 06:37 PM

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.

**Hypestyles** · February-14-16, 08:09 PM

what does this mean, if anything, for the cross-county transit buses? Never mind....

**mtburb** · February-14-16, 09:55 PM

Now if only they could widen I-94 in Ann Arbor...

**Honky Tonk** · February-14-16, 10:24 PM

Originally Posted by mtburb

Now if only they could widen I-94 in Ann Arbor...

They already have. In the 60's, 94 was 2 lanes around State Street, and State Street was 1 lane heading to the University.

**softailrider** · February-14-16, 11:13 PM

Originally Posted by 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.

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.

**DTWflyer** · February-15-16, 10:55 AM

Asphalt highway surfaces generally require milling and top-surfaces about every 10-15 years to stay in good condition.

When they last resurfaced I-75 through Troy, they just milled and resurfaced, they did not reconstruct the underlying road bed. They did do some minor bridge work then, but other than the 9 Mile bridge replacement due to the tanker accident, none of the bridges have been outright replaced.