GRAND RAPIDS, MI – As the summer road construction season comes to a close, the Michigan Department of Transportation is getting ready to reopen all lanes and nearly all ramps involved in the ‘flip’ realignment project for the I-96/I-196/East Beltline interchange.
But there will still be several closures for the next week and a half for paving and striping, MDOT officials said.
"There are major closures ahead to get things ready before winter and the work is highly weather dependent, so the schedule will be quite fluid," said Art Green, Grand Rapids Transportation Service Center manager. "We haven't closed this interchange area in more than 50 years. It's been rough on everybody but with the way we've constructed this, we'll now have 50 years of less congestion, increased safety and better flow moving forward."
All lanes and ramps will reopen except the new eastbound I-96 ramp to the East Beltline (M-37), MDOT said.
Here’s a tentative timeline provided by MDOT for the work happening between Nov. 1 and Nov. 9:
- Friday, Nov. 1 – East Beltline Avenue ramp to eastbound I-96 closes at 9 a.m. and reopens Saturday, Nov. 9
- Monday, Nov. 4 – the left lane of westbound I-96/I-196 will close from East Beltline Avenue to Maryland Avenue at 9 a.m. It will reopen Thursday, Nov. 7
- Wednesday evening, Nov. 6, through 5 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 7, one lane will be open on westbound I-96 from M-21 (Fulton Street) to the I-96/I-196 split. The M-21 ramp to westbound I-96 will be closed.
On Thursday, Nov. 7, the following openings and closures are scheduled:
- Westbound I-196 will be closed from I-96 to Fuller Avenue from midnight to 5 a.m.
- One lane of eastbound I-96 will reopen at Leonard Street at 1 a.m.
- The southbound East Beltline Avenue ramp to westbound I-96 will reopen at 5 a.m.
- Eastbound I-196 will be closed from Fuller Avenue to I-96 from 1 a.m. Nov. 7 through Saturday, Nov. 9.
- Thursday, Nov. 7 through Friday morning, Nov. 8, eastbound I-96 will reopen along with the Leonard Street ramp to eastbound I-96.
MDOT began work on the $40 million project this spring to reconstruct I-196 between Maryland Avenue and East Beltline Avenue and construct two new bridges to reconfigure the I-96/I-196/M-44 (East Beltline) interchange.
The new configuration will create dedicated exit lanes from eastbound I-96 and I-196 to East Beltline Avenue.
