It's Back! I-94 rebuild in Detroit returns

[Brian1979]

Huh? I-90/94 is the only freeway that comes close to the Chicago loop. Downtown Detroit is boxed in by 3 different freeways: the Lodge, Fisher, and 375.

Exactly and to a lesser extent I-290 [[the Eisenhower) comes close to the Chicago loop but enters it as a surface street called Congress Parkway and even at that it comes in from a different direction than the Dan Ryan/Kennedy does.

[Brian1979]

The reply I wrote at 1:09am last night was some great jibberish. I was pretty tired and now notice that I made some mistakes in there.

[Brian1979]

I was interested in seeing exactly where 8 Mile/Baseline went to. I went to mapquest and dragged the cursor across the state of Michigan on the Baseline and notice that west of US 23 it is a very discontinous road and the Baseline actually goes across a few lakes and one of them is even named Baseline Lake. It does however go clear across the state ending as Baseline Road just north of South Haven on the Allegan/Van Buren county line.

[ghettopalmetto]

I was interested in seeing exactly where 8 Mile/Baseline went to. I went to mapquest and dragged the cursor across the state of Michigan on the Baseline and notice that west of US 23 it is a very discontinous road and the Baseline actually goes across a few lakes and one of them is even named Baseline Lake. It does however go clear across the state ending as Baseline Road just north of South Haven on the Allegan/Van Buren county line.

Actually, the baseline keeps going across Lake Michigan, where it becomes the Illinois/Wisconsin border.

[Brian1979]

Actually, the baseline keeps going across Lake Michigan, where it becomes the Illinois/Wisconsin border.

Yeah I notice that too but didn't know if it was still known as Baseline Road.

[Hypestyles]

...I would like to see a rail component incorporated into any expansion of I-94, .. it can go down the middle... or just a rail system period..

[Detroitnerd]

...I would like to see a rail component incorporated into any expansion of I-94, .. it can go down the middle... or just a rail system period..

That's a weird proposition. I tend to think that rail running down a freeway puts two modes together that work at cross purposes. Rail stops traditionally help create density, and yet freeways demand space and through-put. Better still:

Redesignate another route to Port Huron as the final leg of "I-94".

Redesignate I-94 as a crosstown "parkway" with limited capacity.

Install a serious mass transit system with crosstown routes to TAKE CARS OFF THE FREEWAY instead of trying to TURN IT INTO A 696-style CAVERN SEPARATING NEW DEVELOPMENT IN MIDTOWN FROM NEW DEVELOPMENT IN NEW CENTER!

The plans are not up-to-date. If they followed the plans they took off the shelf, they'd have to demolish NEW CONSTRUCTION to build it. Shelve it and STOP BUILDING MORE ROADWAY! Detroit needs transportation CHOICES, not MORE LANE-MILES!

[ghettopalmetto]

I-94?

Tear that schitt DOWN!!!

[5speedz34]

I grew up on the Far Eastside also, to locals I called them Vernier and Moross but if people asked where I lived it would be 7 Mile and Mack.

As for Van Dyke once it becomes freeway it's actually called the 'Christopher Columbus'. I've always called it the Van Dyke Expressway or just M53. It might be an eastside thing but no one I know calls 16 mile Metro Pkwy, but I do call it Big Beaver in Oakland County. Not to mention in Sterling Heights its also signed as the Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway.

I feel most people my age [[early 20's) only refer to the Lodge, Davison, and Southfield by name. I have friends who probably don't even know the proper names for 96, 94, 75, and 696.

[Scottathew]

M-DOT has announced that the United Sound Studio would be relocated to an adjacent parcel.

A sound decision: MDOT purchases Detroit

recording studio to preserve history

Fast facts:
- MDOT has purchased the United Sound Studio and adjacent parking lot for $1.7 million.
- The purchase was made in advance of the I-94 modernization project and subsequent replacement of the Second Avenue bridge over I-94.
- MDOT will relocate the structure to the adjacent parking lot to preserve the facility and retain its historical designation.

January 11, 2019 -- On Dec. 14, 2018, the Michigan Department of Transportation [[MDOT) became the owner of the United Sound Studio located at 5840 Second Ave. in Detroit. The purchase includes the adjacent parking lot along with the recording/engineering equipment. The final negotiated price was $1.7 million. The United Sound Studio was listed for sale in June 2018, and the funding for the purchase came from the project's dedicated right-of-way funds. After relocation, MDOT will work within federal and state guidelines to sell the studio.


The decision to purchase the studio was made to preserve its history and to protect the structure from future construction impacts. The I-94 modernization project involves rebuilding the freeway to current design standards, replacing 67 bridges, and adding an additional through-lane in each direction between Conner Street and I-96. The physical structure will be relocated to the adjacent parking lot, increasing the distance from the proposed retaining walls that will be constructed in conjunction with the modernization project. The move will allow the studio to remain in its historical district designated by the Detroit City Council in 2015.

Prior to the purchase, MDOT studied several avoidance options to move the proposed I-94 construction away from the studio. Options included narrowing the freeway lanes and shoulders and shifting the freeway south in the vicinity of Second Avenue. The results of these options resulted in either additional impacts ornot fully protecting the studio from construction impacts. The current project environmental study is governed by federal laws that require MDOT to investigate means of avoiding or mitigating impacts on historical structures. In consultation with the State Historic Preservation Office [[SHPO), moving the building onto current United Sound Studio property is a viable way to preserve its history. The building is eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places as Detroit’s first major independent recording studio.

[Meddle]

I feel most people my age [[early 20's) only refer to the Lodge, Davison, and Southfield by name. I have friends who probably don't even know the proper names for 96, 94, 75, and 696.

Old thread bumped, so I don't remember if I saw this post 7 years ago.

How many know that at least part of the Jeffries isn't officially called that any more?

[Scottathew]

Old thread bumped, so I don't remember if I saw this post 7 years ago.

I hope I bumped the right one! My apologies if I didn't.

[Gistok]

I hope I bumped the right one! My apologies if I didn't.

No, you bumped the right one... it just went off on a tangent on "ghost names" of freeways and roadways.

No one in Macomb County knows what the James O'Hara Freeway [[I-94) is because only one iddy biddy sign north of 8 Mile calls it that... that's why the Rosa Parks named portion of I-96 [[Jeffries) is a meaningless gesture.

People still know the Chrysler and Fisher freeways, since saying an accident on I-75 is kinda meaningless without more info... I often hear I-75 Fisher or I-75 Chrysler.

As for the widening of I-94... it is continuing with the rebuilding of bridges [[that badly need replacement) along the Conner to I-96 path. So far Woodward and Van Dyke bridges have been rebuilt/widened to allow a future 4 lanes of traffic, and now the Gratiot and Chene overpasses are rebuilt/widened as well.

[Worldsgreatest]

This plan needs to be killed for good, send it back and let it die. Stop wasting Michigan taxpayer money.

[Bham1982]

This plan needs to be killed for good, send it back and let it die. Stop wasting Michigan taxpayer money.

Yeah, what are these dummies thinking? Couldn't they find an arena or billionaire who needs taxpayer wealth? No one in Michigan uses roads, or needs trucks to deliver goods, and Michigan road/bridge conditions are obviously unparalleled...

[313WX]

This plan needs to be killed for good, send it back and let it die. Stop wasting Michigan taxpayer money.

I think you finally said something we both agree with.

I'm ok with bringing I-94 up to modern federal standards, but the extra lane [[when I'm sure traffic volumes haven't seen a notable increase in 40 years, and won't see a notable increase any time soon) is the very definition of a boondoggle.

[Dexlin]

I'm loath to keep relitigating this, but after I saw this wouldn't really expand the footprint of the freeway, I was all right with it. The extra lane and some realignments/straightenings is largely to make the whole thing safer since so many trucks use it; this isn't really being done because of increased automobile traffic to induce new automobile traffic. For its length, the project will effect relatively few properties near the freeway.

I still have some concerns with which bridges they plan to reuse and remove, but other than that I'm mostly fine with the project. I really like all of the new landscaping, bike lanes, and multi-use paths that will be created as part of the reconfiguration of streets around the project.

I think if you don't travel much outside the area, you may not realize how outdated some of the design and safety features are/how old this section of freeway is. This will reduce a lot of unnecessary and dangerous weaves and such by taking away some ramps and moving others to allow more space to merge.

Back on the new news, I'm glad to hear United Sound Studios is being saved, and I'm quite surprised given how much less often this is done these days they plan to physically move the building. Anyway, the project isn't going anywhere. It's already happening. The first phase is the rebuilding of the bridges along the route to be able to support the expansion. The Gratiot and Chene bridges were just reopened, though there is still touch-up work and the ramp construction is still quite a ways off.

BTW, here's the project's website for anyone interested:

https://i94detroit.org/

[JBMcB]

I think if you don't travel much outside the area, you may not realize how outdated some of the design and safety features are/how old this section of freeway is.

I used to travel this stretch daily when I went to WSU. Even when there was much less traffic, that whole thing was a nightmare. You have traffic merging in from 75 on the right, then more traffic from John R, then, a couple hundred feet after that, traffic is exiting on the left AND right to the Lodge. It's insane. The new northbound I75 interchange is much better, but the whole thing needs to be re-done.

[Dexlin]

Yes, the stretch being redone - particularly the portion between the two other freeways - is a really outdated design and you can easily tell when you drive it.

The big changes will be a much wider shoulder in the middle for disabled vehicles as well as widened shoulders on the outside, and an additional outside lane in each direction. Also, exit/entrance ramps will be lengthened to allow for easier merging, and some will be widened.

And you addressed another big issue that will be changed to increase safety: All left-hand entrance/exist ramps will be removed. That means no one in the right lanes is trying to cut across the entire freeway to access the south-bound Lodge from WB I-94, for instance. For the entire Lodge/I-94 interchange in any direction, you'll now only have to watch for cars merging and exiting to your right.

[expatriate]

OMG! Have we learned nothing after witnessing the destruction to our cities by urban freeway construction. Every "real" city is actually demolishing them.

[dtowncitylover]

I say let the freeway rot.

[JBMcB]

Every "real" city is actually demolishing them.

That's great for them. Detroit is still very much rebuilding. 80% of the people who live in the Detroit area don't live in Detroit. If you want those people going into Detroit and spending money, they have to get there somehow. You could hook up a massive, city-wide train system to do the job, which would probably take a couple of decades to put together. Until then, roads are the way to go.

[Gistok]

OMG! Have we learned nothing after witnessing the destruction to our cities by urban freeway construction. Every "real" city is actually demolishing them.

Now go back and Google freeway elimination. You will find that most of those being demolished are ELEVATED freeways with a lot of dead zones underneath [[where no one will want to walk under), or those turning a downtown area into an island.

And those who would want the freeway to rot... nice mature sentiment. Detroit has NO crosstown roadways between 7 Mile Rd and that maze known as Warren/Forest... except for I-94. It handles 90% of the crosstown traffic going between the east side and west side, north of Midtown.

I'm glad the scale of the project has been reduced to eliminate service drives, but adding a 4th lane only makes it safer and upgrades a nearly 60 year old freeway. Personally I don't want them to change the overpass locations however.

[Dexlin]

I mean, more than it's importance to Detroit, people are forgetting that a lot of freeway eliminations are eliminating freeway spurs. I-94 is a true interstate highway with its most important section connecting Detroit/Port Huron/Canada with Chicago and beyond. This isn't some freeway spur you can just get rid of. And, BTW, Detroit is getting rid of I-375.

I am not a fan of new freeway construction, but it's crazy to me the gaping ignorance behind the opposition to a project like this, as if people don't remember this isn't just about commuters, but that routes like I-94 routes carrying necessary truck traffic. We're not talking about the Lodge or the Davison, which are largely commuter corridors. Like, people have to start making the simple distinctions. There are some freeways we don't really need. A true interstate freeway

In Detroit more than most this is the case; their aren't just commuter corridors for suburbanites, they are economic corridors for goods and services that can't be effectively shipped by plane or train. Like, act like you've been here before, folks.

[Hypestyles]

with the announcement of the relocation of United Sound Studios-- just how much of I-94 will be widened? The music studio is a commercial property-- what is being proposed regarding the residential communities that currently exist in the I-94 immediate vicinity? Have they been given any "warning" that this widening project is happening? Regardless of the 2030+ timeline, this is serious...