It may not feel like it outside, but work is already underway to kick off the 2026 construction season. This year, there's a massive overhaul of I-94 planned that will impact people who live and work in Romulus, Taylor, Allen Park, Dearborn Heights, Melvindale, and Dearborn.
This is going to be a major multi-year project, and if you travel to and from the airport often, this construction project will really slow you down.
Watch Ali's report below
Inside the Triangle Coney Island in Allen Park, word is spreading about the project starting this year.
“Well, it is going to make getting around pretty difficult, that’s for sure," said Allen Park resident Terry Chaney.
When I asked him about how the project would slow him down, Juan Nunez, a Detroit native, said “Traffic, time, it's like a long time out here."
The Restore I-94 project will start at Wayne Road, just east of I-275, and extends nearly 13 miles, all the way to Schaefer, just west of Michigan Avenue. Preliminary work kicks off this week.
Matt Hickman is an assistant delivery engineer for MDOT. He tells me the project will include an overhaul at the I-94 and Ecorse interchange, getting rid of the left-lane entrance ramps.
“(We're) clearing and tree removal efforts in Ecorse interchange area," Hickman said. “Also, widening the freeway temporarily so that traffic can be maintained when one side of the freeway is rebuilt.”
The $350 millon project also includes new pavement, lighting, and drainage improvements, and an upgraded intelligent transportation system. All these improvements mean lane closures, and a traffic shift.
“When one side of the freeway is being rebuilt, we need to shift traffic onto the other side of the freeway, and run in a bidirectional fashion so that one side can fully be rebuilt at a time," Hickman said.
When the shift does happen, sometime in the late summer, there will only be two lanes open in each directions, and there will be time where traffic will be taken down to only one lane.
“It’s going to add extra time to the travel," Mark Johnson from Farmington Hills.
I asked Taylor resident Charlene Smith how often she travels on I-94.
“Everyday. I DoorDash. So every day, looks like I’ll be taking Ecorse cause year, but I think everybody else will too," she replied.
The Michigan Department of Transportation is hosting two public meetings for people to learn about the project: one in Allen Park on Tuesday, Feb. 3 (1-3 p.m. at the Department of Public Services building on Outer Drive) and one on Wednesday, Feb. 4 (4-6 p.m. at Taylor City Hall on Goddard Road). You can learn more information about the project and these meetings at this link.
