Metro Detroit construction causes headaches for drivers
LIVONIA, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) – Construction season in Metro Detroit is well underway, so closures and detours are inevitable.
Hamza Jamal fires up GPS to beat the traffic but says getting to his job at Six Mile and Haggerty is still a hassle.
"It takes about 30 to 40 minutes for us to just drive four to five miles," Jamal said.
In Metro Detroit, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is repairing the most damaged roads first, including I-275 from Huron Charter Township to Plymouth.
Navigating through the construction zones can get tricky.
"Before, you could just think, you know, 'Oh, yeah, this is my normal route.' But now, you don't know what closures, so you have to rely on some kind of, you know, map service to see, where are these closures? Are they accurate? Is it still there? Because, like, my GPS told me today that 275 North was open, but it wasn't. So then I started to, you know, frantically try to find the next exit and see where I'm going," Asad Kamal, who commutes from Ann Arbor, said.
MDOT told CBS News Detroit the number of closures and detours vary daily, but they spend hours planning them weeks and months ahead of time.
Many of them happen during the weekend.
"Because what might be 120,000 drivers a day during a weekday, maybe it's only 40,000 on a weekend. So when you choose when to close the road, we're going to close it when it affects fewer people. So we really do give a lot of thought to that," Diane Cross, MDOT Metro Region spokesperson, said.
Cross believes drivers in our area have it easier than in other parts of the state.
"If you normally use 94 as an east-west route. We've got 96, east-west, we've got 696, east-west. North and South 75, we've got Southfield, we've got the Lodge, we've got 275. So we do have other freeways, where a lot of big communities don't have that option with other roads," Cross said.
She recommends drivers check out their website: michigan.gov/drive, and their social media channels to find the latest updates on closures and detours.
"We do our part to alert the public. But if the public doesn't do any seeking of knowledge and they just expect a sign to be there, it is not possible to put a sign at every possible point where we're doing construction or maintenance, or there's been a crash, so drivers need to do their part too," Cross said.