I-75: Mixed feelings on the $1B project

Reporter's note: An earlier version of this story included an incorrect projection provided to the Free Press by the Michigan Department of Transportation for increases in traffic on I-75. This version includes a smaller projected increase.

In a few months, those familiar bright orange barrels will sprout along I-75 like daffodils, marking the beginning of road construction season in southeast Michigan.

But for some in Oakland County, the I-75 reconstruction and expansion is more like dandelions -- a pest; a headache; and something to avoid.

Terrell Robert wants to see I-75 resurfaced, but widen the freeway and the 82-year-old sees trouble ahead.

“They’re doing 90 m.p.h. (now). Hell, they’ll be doing 100 then,” said the Pontiac man as he prepared to leave a shopping center in Bloomfield Township last week.

With the 14-year, $1-billion reconstruction and widening project expected to begin this summer, those who drive what County Executive L. Brooks Patterson called Oakland County’s Main Street are considering what it will mean for them. The project will modernize interchanges, replace all vehicle and pedestrian bridges and add a lane north and south to be used for carpooling during rush hour and regular traffic at other times.

The initial reaction to the project has been mixed. Some are pleased that a major highway with obvious signs of wear and tear over the past five decades is finally getting rebuilt. Others suggest widening the more than 17-mile route from Auburn Hills to Hazel Park is an outdated approach to regional planning that would divert attention and resources from public transit.

It also has highlighted a split among communities, with Royal Oak, Ferndale and some other southern Oakland County communities considering resolutions opposing the project, but officials in cities such as Troy expressing support for it.

Public transit advocate Megan Owens, executive director for Transportation Riders United, said it is “absurd to spend a billion dollars to widen a highway without full and recent evaluation of alternatives and public involvement.” That kind of information, according to MDOT, was gathered between 1998 and 2006.

Rob Morosi, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Transportation, stressed that the reconstruction is a “fix-it first” project. He estimated that 90% of the cost will go toward reconstruction.

“We have a highway that was built in the '60s and has reached its design life,” he said.

​Ultimately, MDOT could not let the highway continue to deteriorate, Morosi said, noting that a Band-Aid approach to maintenance is not cost-effective. The project also will fix problem areas like the current convergence of traffic at I-696, where a so-called braid will elevate traffic heading from I-696 to I-75 north so it flows over the traffic exiting for 11 Mile.

The Southeast Michigan Council of Governments projects traffic volumes to increase on the route. Spokeswoman Sue Stetler said the area of I-75 from 8 Mile to M-59 is "projected to increase an average of 10% in total from 2015 to 2040."

For residents,  the concerns range from Robert’s fear of higher speeds to sticker shock at the estimated price tag, 80% of which is to come from federal funds with the rest coming from state and local governments. In the case of Royal Oak, for example, that means more than $4.3 million. But many residents also referenced the current traffic congestion — an estimated 103,000 to 174,000 vehicles travel the road every day — which makes some think twice about driving on it.

The freeway project is planned in eight segments, starting with a section between South Boulevard in Auburn Hills and Coolidge Highway in Troy that should be completed next year. The final section, from north of 9 Mile to north of 8 Mile in Hazel Park, is not slated to start until 2030.

“Fourteen years? I thought it was four years,” said Bryan Clavet, 58, of Ferndale, noting that he tells his tree trimming crews to take side streets and avoid the highway when they can because of the congestion.

As Clavet walked into a Rite Aid in Hazel Park, northbound traffic was moving slowly under the overpass at 9 Mile for the evening commute.

Construction will also clearly mean delays for commuters.

“It’s going to suck for the people who have to use (the road) every day,” said John Wingate, 28, of Hazel Park, noting that he can usually rely on side streets to get where he needs to go.

Negative reaction

Morosi said the negative reaction to the project is not unprecedented.

The reconstruction of a 7-mile stretch of I-96 in Redford Township and Livonia in 2014 garnered much of the same reaction, Morosi said, noting that once the construction was completed residents saw the advantage of having the highway rebuilt.

The I-96 project was completed in one season, but Morosi said that is not a feasible time frame for I-75. Tackling 3- and 4-mile segments at a time is much more reasonable.

“I don’t think anyone wants to go through a 17-mile-long rebuild,” he said, insisting that closing I-75, as happened with I-96, is also not reasonable because Oakland County lacks the redundancy in highway options that Wayne County has.

It's unclear how much property MDOT might need to acquire for the project. Morosi said the majority would be south of 12 Mile Road, and officials are trying to determine if any structures would need to be removed. But he said the affected areas should be relatively small.

Morosi said at least two lanes each way would remain open during construction, but if possible that would be increased to three lanes. A construction schedule has been developed, but the time of work on later sections could be adjusted.

“Maybe there’s a way to cut down on the duration of the project and get it done quicker,” Morosi said.

Funding limits and the need to accommodate other regional transportation projects also influenced the construction schedule, Morosi said.

Interestingly, lack of funding is the reason the M-59 cloverleaf interchange, which is farther north, is not included in the project. Morosi said modernizing the interchange was deemed too expensive to include, in part because of the need to acquire additional property.

But Rochester Hills resident Jean Latour said he understands why MDOT wants to widen the road, but he said not including the interchange is a mistake because it adds a significant amount of traffic to I-75.

"I think they need to go back and look at it," said Latour, 61. "It's a bad corner and everyone knows it."

Nick Schroeck, director of the Transnational Environmental Law Clinic and an associate clinical professor at Wayne State University Law School, who has also been involved in the opposition to the proposed and similarly controversial I-94 reconstruction project on Detroit's east side, said he's not sure  the need for additional lanes has been demonstrated. And expressing the skepticism of many public transit advocates, Schroeck said more lanes can actually lead to additional traffic, which can offset benefits from a wider road, a phenomenon known as induced demand.

"It's an open question as to whether it will reduce congestion," Schroeck said.

MDOT should be commended for planning to add high-occupancy vehicle (HOV), or carpool, lanes, Schroeck said.

The HOV lanes for I-75 lanes are billed as Michigan's first HOV lanes, requiring two or more riders.  HOV lanes are widely used in other regions, such as the highways in and around Washington, D.C.

But Schroeck called the HOV addition a small consolation, which would actually add to the long-term cost of the project.

"Every mile of concrete that we add is more that we have to maintain. I don’t think we have a solid plan to deal with deferred maintenance" on roads now, Schroeck said.

He said no one is against safety improvements, such as rebuilding the crash-plagued interchange at Square Lake Road so that drivers exit on the right vs. the left, but the cost associated with widening the interstate should be questioned.

Carmine Palombo, deputy executive director of the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, said the highway's traffic issues are real, as are its safety problems. And he said rather than taking away from public transit, the widening could and should benefit transit.

HOV lanes, for example, should allow buses to move faster. Palombo said public transit should be able to take advantage of that, which in turn should make such services more attractive.

Pitting the I-75 project against public transit does not make sense, Palombo said.

"The reality is we need both improvements to that roadway and improvements to transit," Palombo said. "Never has that been an either or in my world. ... They're both very much needed."

The Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation, which runs bus service in Detroit's suburbs, appears to be looking at the highway's construction as an opportunity for its service.

"SMART has reached out to us," Morosi said. "Talks are very preliminary. There has been some interest expressed in maybe developing some special routes during construction."

But not everyone is convinced that the highway expansion is good for mass public transit.

Royal Oak City Commissioner Kyle DuBuc said such projects are directly at odds with the goals of public transportation and highlight the kinds of infrastructure neglect represented by the Flint water crisis.

“What happened in Flint is the end result of disinvestment in our infrastructure — policies that were designed to dismantle our population centers and encourage sprawl. And the expansion of I-75 will do the same thing. We understand that the expansion will just lead to more congestion. That’s what always happens when you add lanes to a freeway," DuBuc said.

The Royal Oak City Commission will consider a resolution on Monday night opposing the project.

“The City of Royal Oak — ask any of us on the commission — we will tell you, this is the wrong thing to do with our tax dollars. More concrete, more freeways — this is crazy. We’re going to pay for people to drive past Royal Oak?”

But other officials see it differently.

Oakland County Commissioner Wade Fleming, R-Troy, whose district includes Clawson, most of Troy and a portion of Royal Oak, supports the project. Fleming is also a former Troy City Council member.

"You certainly need it because if you're ever on I-75 at rush hour, you know it’s a stalemate out there," he said. "I-75 has certainly been in need of repair and expansion for at least the last 10 years."

When asked whether he thinks adding a lane will encourage more traffic, Fleming said the traffic is already there.

"Certainly we need better public transportation here, but I don’t ever think that’s going to take the place of the automobile in this region," he said.

Riding the bus

As Brandon Gaffke, 27, of Ferndale waited for a SMART bus on Adams Road in Bloomfield Township, he considered his choice not to drive to his construction job in Rochester Hills every day. Gas prices have come down in recent weeks, but Gaffke said he'd rather not spend what he estimated is almost four times the cost of his bus pass on gas.

But the trip to and from home is an hour each way, and because of a limited bus schedule, he has to catch the bus before 6 a.m and does not get home until about 5 p.m.

Gaffke said certain areas of I-75 do need work, but he would like to see the money go to pay for more buses.

"There's way better things they could spend that billion dollars on," Gaffke said.

Owens, the transit advocate, echoed that comment.

"At a fraction of the cost, our region could probably develop both a commuter train and bus rapid transit from Pontiac to Detroit, potentially taking tens of thousands of cars off the road and spurring greater economic development benefits. But that was never thoroughly considered," she said.

Others point to a generational shift in attitudes about driving as exemplified by a University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute study released earlier this year showing a continuous decrease in the percentage of those age 16-44 with driver's licenses between 1983 and 2014 and the unknown impact of autonomous vehicle technology in coming years as factors that could reduce the need for expanded highways.

Transit advocates have also worried that road construction is at odds with the efforts under way at the Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan, which is expected to ask voters to support an as-yet-unannounced millage.   Part of its regional transportation plan is expected to include bus rapid transit on Woodward Avenue. Patterson was criticized for his timing in touting the I-75 project ahead of the millage effort.

Patterson, who touted the project as a boost to the economy and said it would improve the quality of life by reducing congestion, and MDOT have stopped short of pledging support for the millage, although both have indicated they support the RTA.

“Executive Patterson has been supportive of the RTA and been a partner at the table in creating a regional plan. We would not have gotten this far and ... feel we will get the support we need to move forward,” said Travis Gonyou, RTA spokesman.

MDOT's Morosi called the vote coming in November an important one, but said "it's not MDOT's job to tell people how to vote." The transit advocacy group Motor City Freedom Riders has also launched a petition drive asking Patterson, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Wayne County Executive Warren Evans and Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel to announce their support for the millage.

Staff writer Bill Laitner contributed to this report. Contact Eric D. Lawrence: elawrence@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @_ericdlawrence.

Ferndale, Royal Oak to discuss I-75

City councils in both Ferndale and Royal Oak are expected to pass resolutions Monday night that unequivocally oppose any investment in I-75 that would increase its capacity.

And neighboring communities soon might add their voices to the opposition, some officials said.

The resolution on Royal Oak's agenda suggests an expansion is not warranted because the region is not expected to regain its 2000 population within the next 25 years and that traffic congestion in southeast Michigan will remain "limited." It says the expansion threatens significant negative impacts to communities, such as the displacement of residents, destruction of the local tax base, increases in traffic noise and loss of property values. The resolution also says surveys show a majority of residents do not support raising taxes for highway expansion.

The resolution says Royal Oak will use "all legal means" to prevent the expansion.

Madison Heights Mayor Brian Hartwell said he endorses the Royal Oak resolution and he intends to ask city council to pass a similar resolution.

--Bill Laitner and Eric D. Lawrence