All lanes of a stretch of Interstate 696 in Oakland County will be shut down starting at 9 p.m. on May 9, and are scheduled to remain closed through 5 a.m. on May 19.
Eastbound lanes on a stretch from the Telegraph Road/Lodge Freeway exit through Interstate 75 have been closed since March 3, a shutdown expected to last into 2027. Starting Friday night, the westbound lanes from Southfield Road to Lahser Road will also be closed, so work crews can demolish the Church Street plaza bridge.
“We are moving dirt and fixing the damn roads to grow our economy,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said last month of the state’s road improvements, adding the efforts help “Michiganders go to work, drop their kids off at school and run errands safely.”
Traffic moves along the east and westbound lanes of I-696 near Lincoln Drive in Southfield on Monday, Feb. 10, 2025.
Workers will take down 170 concrete beams.
For that, westbound I-696 traffic is set to be rerouted to southbound I-75, westbound Davison Highway (M-8) and northbound Lodge Freeway (M-10) to get back onto westbound I-696.
There also will be a local westbound lane with access to Bermuda Street, Woodward Avenue (M-1) and Coolidge Highway.
One of Whitmer’s campaign slogans when she ran in 2018 was “Fix the damn roads.” Since then, she has sought to live up to it, including offering a $3 billion plan earlier this year that includes funds to help local communities fix local roads.
As part of Michigan’s ongoing roadway construction project, MDOT said, 60 bridges are being repaired, including the rebuilding of the Church Street Plaza bridge that includes Victoria Park.
More: Michigan road funding efforts have stalled before. Can new plans break the traffic jam?
A walkway detour will be in place during the construction.
Demolition has already begun on the eastbound side of the Church Street plaza bridge.
Next year, westbound I-696 will be rebuilt from I-75 to Lahser Road; and the last phase of the Restore the Reuther project will rebuild I-696 in 2025-2026, and in 2027, I-696 will have major road work done between I-75 and Dequindre Road.
Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: I-696 construction to close WB lanes from May 9-19: Detours to know