Massive I-496 reconstruction project expected to kick off next spring

LANSING - Getting around town could take a little longer beginning next spring.

In February, state highway officials plan to seek bids for a $60 million project to rebuild most of Interstate 496, repave a section of Waverly Road and do maintenance on bridges over the freeway.

The work is expected to begin in April and be finished by November.

Crews will totally reconstruct the section of freeway between Interstate 96 and Lansing Road, working on one side at a time, the Michigan Department of Transportation said.

Work will start on the eastbound lanes, with eastbound traffic detoured onto state and local roads. When that side is finished, the westbound lanes will be closed and westbound traffic detoured.

That process should be safer for workers and allow them to make better progress, said Gregory Losch, manager of MDOT's Lansing Transportation Service Center.

Typically, crews build crossover lanes to shift all traffic onto one side of a freeway at a time, with a temporary barrier separating traffic heading in opposite directions.

That process "adds a lot of time and really bites into contractor productivity," Losch said during a community meeting Tuesday at Lansing Community College's Delta Township campus. "This schedule should allow us to get all of it done in the same year."

Including the exit and entrance ramps, crews will pour more than seven miles of new concrete, with the I-96, Waverly and Creyts Road interchanges getting safety improvements, MDOT said.

The posted detours will use Lansing Road, with traffic signals configured to move the added traffic in one direction or the other, depending on which side of the freeway is closed, Losch said.

Drivers are also likely to use other roads as detours, including Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (M-99), M-43 and Cedar Street, he said.

As part of the project, Waverly Road will be rebuilt between Lansing Road and St. Joseph Highway. Plans also call for a new pedestrian and bicycle path along Waverly, officials said. The Ingham County Road Department and Lansing and Delta Townships are partnering with MDOT in the Waverly Road part of the project

Contractors also will do preventative maintenance on all bridges in the construction zone, resulting in short-term closures and more detours, they said.

Federal money will cover roughly 80 percent of the project cost, with the rest coming from state and local sources, MDOT said.

The I-496 makeover will come exactly 50 years after the freeway opened, MDOT spokesman Aaron Jenkins said.

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Contact Ken Palmer at (517) 377-1032 or kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBPalm_lsj.