For two years starting on Feb. 25, commuters will be routed off I-75 between Clark St. and Rosa Parks Blvd.
Ouch.
This is shaping up to be a big pain for lots of people, namely residents of the area who will be dealing with tons of truck traffic on their surface streets and businesses that are being cut off from their customers.
But there is an upside. The Ambassador Bridge Gateway Project will wrap up in 2009, leaving behind a vastly improved network of ramps to the Ambassador Bridge and a pedestrian bridge that will link the long-divided main street of Mexicantown, Bagley.
This $170 million phase of the overall $230 million project is the largest single contract project in the state's history. Although disruptive, it was designed to interrupt traffic for just 22 months, rather than the estimated four years if the freeway were to remain open. This phase is expected to generate 2,800 jobs from now to 2009.
Improving traffic flow between Detroit and Windsor is extremely important to the area's economic health. "The Detroit-Windsor border handles $115 billion in annual trade, making it the busiest international crossing in North America. The viability, efficiency, and safety of Michigan's border crossing network is crucial to Michigan’s economy and the Country’s economic well-being, now and in the future," said MDOT Director Kurt T. Steudle in a statement.
Much of the construction project is nuts-and-bolts, i.e., the reconstruction of sections of the I-75 and I-96 freeways and building or rehabilitating 18 ramps and 24 bridges in the area. But the most visibly noteworthy feature will be a signature, cable-stay pedestrian bridge at Bagley Street that will span I-75 and I-96, thus reconnecting East and West Mexicantown, which were divided in the 1970's when the freeways were built.
The pedestrian bridge will lead tourists and residents alike directly to the Detroit
Mexicantown International Welcome Center and Mercado.
Source: MDOTWriter: Kelli B. Kavanaugh
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