I-75 is due to be expanded between Eight Mile and M-59 in Oakland County.
Federal money will expand two local freeways in the next few years, Tom Greenwood reports in The Detroit News.
Metro Detroit is edging closer to seeing the green light for two massive, multi-year road construction projects that are expected to cost $2.65 billion.
The projects — the reconstruction and widening of a 6.7-mile section of Interstate 94 in Detroit as well as an 18-mile stretch of I-75 in Oakland County — are slated to begin in 2014 and 2015, respectively. They include the reconstruction of I-94 between I-96 and Conner at a cost of about $1.8 billion, and I-75 between Eight Mile and M-59 at a cost of about $850 million.
The Southeast Michigan Council of Governments’ General Assembly is expected to vote today to approve the two plans at its public meeting at the Atheneum Suite Hotel in Greektown.
SEMCOG is expected to appprove both projects, executive director Paul Tait tells Greenwood, despite what Tait calls "some advocacy against the projects -- the I-94 plan especially."
“The money is not as flexible as some advocates would believe. It can’t be used to fix local roads. It’s federal funds, and it has to stay on the freeways.
“If we don’t apply it towards these two projects, that money can go out state.”
Earlier Coverage: Critics Charge I-94 Widening Will Destroy Midtown; Rally Set Thursday, June 18
