6 days ago
10 road construction projects in downtown Detroit set to last until 2026
The Brief
Multiple downtown Detroit road construction projects are set to last until June, 2026.
There are nearly 1,000 traffic cones downtown among the 10 projects ongoing.
DETROIT (FOX 2) - Construction season is here, especially in the downtown area with the constant road closures and blocked lanes making driving a nightmare, at times.
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Lydia Shaia lives in Sterling Heights.
"I leave early in the morning and I like to look at my phone and see the maps, see which route is the fastest," said Lydia Shaia who lives in Sterling Heights. "But the traffic and the construction kind of increases my time."
Driving in downtown Detroit has got more twists and turns than the Grand Prix racetrack these days.
"Even leaving is a lot harder too, because they're helpful with directing us," she said. "But we're stuck either in the parking garage or we're stuck with traffic."
"Leaving is definitely harder than coming here," said Brooke Keeney, a Walled Lake resident. "I don't want to let my secrets out. But coming in earlier definitely makes a difference as far as the traffic goes.
"If I leave my house at seven, it's so much better than if I leave my house at eight."
And navigating the orange cones can be a whirlwind, says Shaia and Keeney who both work downtown.
"Sometimes they're confusing. I accidentally took the wrong road one time just because of the signs, but it just takes learning and being able to kind of adjust to the new norm for a little bit," Shaia said.
The City of Detroit says there is close to 1,000 cones in the downtown area, helping folks get around the 10 construction projects going on.
Sam Krassenstein is the deputy director of the Department of Public Works.
"We're at Monroe and Randolph downtown right now. So the two big projects are right behind me," he said. "So one is Randolph Street, which runs north-south. That's a city project, where we're doing a street scape along Monroe from basically Gratiot all the way down to Jefferson."
The other, says Krassenstein, is the private construction going on at Greektown, making it more pedestrian-friendly.
"Additionally we have some private utility work that's being improved," he said. "We have some other roads that are being improved where you have the Grand Circus Park improvements that the downtown Detroit partnership's doing.
"We have the Jefferson Avenue work related to the new bridge that going across from the riverfront to Congress, behind Huntington Place."
He says the city understands that driving can be a pain, so public transportation is an option.
"We have the People Mover downtown which is free, we have the QLine which is free," he said.
But if you drive, keep a close eye on Google Maps, he says, which they update constantly. Some projects will last until May or June of next year.
"All this construction investment is a sign of a healthy downtown," he said.
About 10 projects are going on for the next year. The City says if you plan on coming down here, plan ahead.
The Source
Information for this story came from interviews with two commuters who work downtown and Sam Krassenstein of DPW.
