The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) has started the second year of a three-year, $45 million project to reconstruct and widen almost 2 miles of I-94 from east of Oakland Drive to east of Lovers Lane in Portage, and rebuild the I-94 interchange at Westnedge Avenue.

This project is funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

Throughout construction, all Westnedge Avenue businesses will remain open and accessible via posted detours on Oakland Drive, Portage Road, Milham Road and Kilgore Road.

"This segment of the I-94 corridor is the vital transportation link between Detroit and Chicago and carries a very high volume of commercial traffic," MDOT Southwest Region Engineer Bobbi Welke said. "Westnedge Avenue is regarded as the center of commercial retail activity for Kalamazoo County in addition to providing the critical arterial route for traffic between Kalamazoo and Portage."

"These routes are important to the economy of southwest Michigan," Welke said. "This project will add capacity, improve traffic flow and increase motorist safety on both routes."

In addition to widening I-94 from four to six lanes, the Westnedge Avenue interchange will be redesigned with a more efficient Single Point Urban Interchange (SPUI) design. The new interchange will require a new traffic signal on Westnedge Avenue, widening about 1,600 feet of Westnedge Avenue to accommodate the new interchange and remove the traffic bottleneck posed by the existing bridge carrying I-94 traffic over South Westnedge Avenue.

Two lanes of traffic will be maintained in each direction on I-94 throughout the project. Work on the I-94 bridge over the Grand Elk Railroad and Portage Creek will require closing this segment of the Portage Bicentennial Park Trail Way through the fall 2011.

Eastbound I-94 construction includes new bridges over Westnedge Avenue and the Grand Elk Railroad. Traffic will be shifted onto westbound I-94 lanes, and several ramps in the I-94/Westnedge Avenue interchange will be closed.
- Westbound I-94 to southbound Westnedge Avenue.
- Eastbound I-94 to northbound Westnedge Avenue.
- Eastbound I-94 to southbound Westnedge Avenue.
- Westnedge Avenue to eastbound I-94.
- Southbound Portage Road to westbound I-94.

Detour routes will be signed, and two lanes of traffic will be maintained on Westnedge Avenue, except for a few short-duration lane closures to remove the existing bridge beams and place new beams.

Half of the project will be complete and reopened to traffic by mid-November. Eastbound traffic will be shifted onto the newly completed eastbound I-94 roadway for the winter months. Because of the partially completed interchange at I-94 and Westnedge Avenue, some ramps still will be closed.
- Eastbound I-94 to northbound Westnedge Avenue.
- Southbound Westnedge Avenue to eastbound I-94.