MDOT will be suspending most of its road projects across the state for the Labor Day weekend starting at 3 p.m. Friday, but come next week another new project gets underway.
This time it’s a one-mile stretch of US 31 in Grand Traverse County. The work starts at 5 Mile Road in Acme Township and goes to the south and west.
MDOT Operations Engineer Krista Phillips says there have been “quite a few crashes, but the main concern is the severity of the crashes.” The one mile stretch along East Grand Traverse Bay is a dangerous one. “There’s been three head-on crashes in the last five years which have led to several fatalities,” Phillips says.
According to MDOT Crash Data from the past five years, there have been 39 crashes, with three fatalities, three other severe injuries, and three head on crashes. This road project aims to address that.
“There’s a lot of interactions that have led to someone switching lanes and cutting someone off and bumping them into oncoming traffic and so on. So that’s what this project will directly address is that pattern of severe crashes that we’ve had,” Phillips says. “It’s a project that’s building a center buffer. Part of it will be a median… a buffer between northbound and southbound traffic to address a safety issue that we’ve had there over the past five years.”
MDOT will also extend a guardrail along the bay as the traffic will be inching closer to the water. “There’s a section of guardrail already in place at the north end. So that guardrail will be extended for the entire length. The road isn’t actually moving closer to the bay, but we’ll be taking up all that shoulder width so the vehicle itself will be closer to the bay,” Phillips says. It may not be ideal, but it’s a logistical necessity. “We are very limited right there. You’ve got the railroad on one side and the bay on the other.”
MDOT says they’re also getting some federal help on this project. It’s a 90/10 split: 90% from federal dollars, 10% from the state. “The Highway Safety Improvement Program is targeted specifically towards addressing severe crash patterns…. We got money specifically, federally from that program,” Philips says.
As with any highway road work you can expect some delays. Phillips says, “You’ll always be able to get through but there will be some delay obviously when you go down from two lanes to one lane.”
Work one the $1.5 million dollar project starts Tuesday and is expected to wrap up in October.
Crash Data from MDOT:
Over the past five years (2017-2021, plus any crashes occurring in 2022) there have been the following:
This new median will directly mitigate the head on and side swipe opposite crashes in this corridor.
This project is funded 90% by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) through the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) which accepts projects that address severe crash patterns.
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