(WXYZ) — MDOT has released new information on the next phase of the project to rebuild I-696 in Oakland County.
Eastbound I-696 has been closed since May and will remain closed as the project continues. These new exit closures may complicate your morning commute, starting Monday.
Watch our Monday morning live report on the closures, including our live interview with MDOT project manager Brian Travis
Watch Brett Kast's video report below:
Beginning at 8 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 14, crews will begin the process of shutting down the freeway by closing the exit and entrance ramps to the westbound lanes along the current work zone. Then from 4 a.m. Saturday through 10 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 16, westbound I-696 will close from I-75 to Lahser Road so that westbound traffic can be switched to the newly rebuilt eastbound lanes.
Once westbound I-696 reopens from I-75 to Lahser Road, only the following exits will be open:
- I-75
- M-1 (Woodward Avenue)
- Southfield Road
- US-24 (Telegraph Road)/M-10 (Lodge Freeway)/Lahser Road
The following exit/entrance ramps will remain closed through late 2026:
- Couzens Avenue
- Bermuda/Hilton Road
- Coolidge Highway
- Greenfield Road
- Evergreen Road
Drivers and businesses prepare for next phase
Aaron Smith is one of many drivers who use I-696 for their daily commute. The last eight months have already been a headache.
"I basically forfeit 40 minutes instead of the seven minutes just to get home,” Smith said.
Businesses like Sahara Restaurant in Oak Park, which is just off the Coolidge Highway exit, have already been hit hard by the construction.
“They say they're going to close both ramps, so I don’t know how people are going to get in here. It’s very bad,” Sahara Restaurant manager Rafi Rahmn said. “Business is down big time… I would say at least 30 to 40 percent.”
Down the road in Pleasant Ridge, Pulse Fitness is right off the Bermuda Avenue exit.
“I think anytime you disrupt someone’s routine when it comes to fitness in general, you kinda get hit, but you gotta, as a gym, pivot,” Pulse Fitness owner Scott Genord said.
The local gym offers many classes at set times, but Genord says he and his customers adjusted for the first phase and hope they will again with the next.
“Whether it’s, again, sending maps or having later classes, but adjusting,” Genord said.
With roughly a year until the exits reopen, drivers and businesses are hoping that time moves faster than the traffic they've come to know.
“It’s just so annoying. It feels like it’s gone on for 20 years,” driver Alex Ebling said.
Drivers are preparing to add even more time to their commute.
“I’m time-crunched. I work three jobs, so I'm going from one job to the next job. I don’t have much time to spare, so that’ll be interesting," driver Annie Lukowski said.
The rebuild project is expected to be completed in 2026. According to MDOT, in 2027, I-696 will have major road work done between I-75 and Dequindre Road. That work includes rebuilding the roadway, bridge improvements, and drainage structures.
