The approximately one year I-96 closure from I-275 to US-24/Telegraph Rd is quickly approaching. Full details and updates are available at the dedicated site here: The I-96 Reconstruction Project.
Since this a large project involving freeway, overpasses, ramps, etc.; it will be quite a detailed editing process. The freeway and perhaps a few other segments are locked at 5, but I will be PMing our non-resident “Detroit enthusiast” to see if he or other Champs could weigh in based on his/their past experience as well as help take care of a number of changes related to the construction and its impact to the area. Today, I noticed that it has been delayed another week, putting the start somewhere near the end of March (no official start date available yet).
It would be nice to have a good level of coordination so that Waze is ready from day one, and it would be really astounding if everything worked out so that the map tile updates reflected in the client on the very day that drivers would be affected.
I think the best way to do this is with a combination of disconnects and time restrictions. This is what I’ve done for other big long-term closures in the area, including Van Dyke at 94 recently. Nothing’s gonna be perfect, but I wouldn’t want to trust an event closure with this.
The process is as follows:
A few days ahead of time, enter time-based segment restrictions for the first few days of the closure. Mess with some geometry in the area so the tiles are updated in the next update.
Once the closure begins in reality, or a couple hours beforehand, manually disconnect the affected segments such that traffic will not be affected. Place the (Closed) flag on the freeway names as well.
A couple days before the freeway reopens, enter time-based segment restrictions to cover the last few days of the closure, and reconnect the segments.
The full disconnect is the only way to ensure that routing will avoid the closure. Segment restrictions may not work perfectly every time, but keeping them to the beginning and end of the closure will minimize any ill effects.
New update from MDOT:
Weather permitting, the full closure of the freeway is scheduled for 7 a.m. April 5. Ramps and interchanges will be closed first, after 7 p.m. on Friday, April 4, followed by the rest of the freeway. Preliminary work, including detour sign placement and temporary widening of the US-24 entrance ramps at I-96, is ongoing. The Schoolcraft Road service drive will have one lane closed in each direction throughout the project, beginning Thursday, April 3. The bridge construction schedule will be announced at a later date. The freeway is expected to reopen in October.
The way that I read it was that MDOT would start to block the ramps and interchanges after 7pm April 4, resulting in a full closure of the freeway (due to no inbound access) by 7am April 5. I don’t have the experience with freeway closures as you do, so do you read that differently?
I cannot find any detail on how they will actually close it, but I would imagine that blocking the freeway to force traffic off at US-24/Telegraph (I-96 W) and Newburgh (for I-96 E) would be the last two things to occur, effectively closing the freeway once the last traffic clears the other end.
I wouldn’t put it past MDOT, but they could go from one end to the other closing ramps and forcing you off as they go, but that would obstruct the thru traffic on the freeway from the start, which doesn’t seem logical.
Looking at these awesome Flash animations though, it is more complex than I originally thought. Certain ramps to the west and east of the project area will be closed while others remain open, M-14 E gets diverted at I-275 while I-275 N can still get on to get to Newburgh, I-96 Express versus Local lanes to the east are impacted, etc. http://www.96fix.com/flash/i96_i275.htm http://www.96fix.com/flash/i96_m39.htm
Okay, so I suppose we should plan for all the ramp segment closures at 7 pm April 4, and all the freeway segment closures at 7 am April 5. Perhaps we should start putting time-based restrictions in, or at least compiling lists of segments to be time-restricted. We should also determine which freeway segments will need to be disconnected to effect the change properly without affecting traffic that’s actually allowed.
Starting work on this today by adding restrictions and marking (Closed)/(Construction Zone) as appropriate. It looks like we had a map tile update to 3/23, so hopefully it can catch up soon.
Good work. I added restrictions on these two segments per the flash animation since traffic will be prohibited from (1) moving from local W to express W and (2) entering express W from Southfield. These too, shown red on the flash animation.
OK, I’m entering stuff into the spreadsheet now. I added you, you can edit it now. I’m trying to inventory everything that needs to be closed first; the permalinks can be added after that. If you wanna get in here and see what’s up, lemme know. I shared it with your Waze email.
I don’t know why this would surprise me since it is the “live” map, but I had not known that when you change a street name in WME, that change reflects in real-time on the LiveMap. Not on the visual since the map tiles have not updated, but in the bubble that appears after clicking on a segment. This makes sense though since URs logged in LiveMap immediately appear in WME, and obviously app-reported hazards appear in near real-time in LiveMap.
I went to add “(Closed)” to I-96 tonight, and I noticed that it was immediately available. I changed a segment back to test it out, and sure enough, I was not crazy.
Ah yeah, we noticed that around the time the new Live Map was implemented. Even weirder, changes in segment geometry are live in the click layer, so if you, say, move a segment 20 feet to the left, and click 20 feet to the left in the Live Map, you’ll get that segment’s name displayed even though it doesn’t show anything there.
