I-96 At Pleasant Valley Road Closed After Truck With Crane Hits Overpass

LIVINGSTON COUNTY (WWJ) - Major traffic issues are expected to hang around for days on I-96 near Brighton after a flatbed truck carrying a crane hit an overpass Wednesday evening.

Pleasant Valley Road remains closed over I-96 and traffic is getting by on the freeway's left shoulder -- and officials say it's going to remain that way for a while.

"A truck with some kind of high equipment, a cherry-picker, some kind of equipment with a boom-raise did hit the bridge overpass on eastbound I-96 and damaged several of the beams -- so we currently have our engineers on site to access that and see when it's safe to reopen," said Michigan Department of Transportation spokesperson Kari Arend.

Drivers are urged to avoid the area and take an alternate route -- along US 23 or M14.

"Normally we have three lanes out there --so the three travel lanes are closed but to alleviate some of that traffic we are opening up the shoulder," said Arend.

Just after 10 p.m. Wednesday MDOT tweeted that the bridge has to come down immediately.

Tom Simpson, an MDOT Maintenance Coordinator, said the hauler was carrying a high load and the impact of the collision damaged four steel I-beams.

"We're going to have to tear down the bridge - tomorrow (Thursday) night - tentatively," he said. "We'll keep the left shoulder open over night and through tomorrow -- then tomorrow night close eastbound I-96."

Officials say there is no time frame for a re-opening.

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