KALAMAZOO (WKZO) — The Michigan Department of Transportation will be working with State Police to put together a team of engineers, traffic experts and crash investigators to talk about perceived safety problems along I-94. It follows the largest chain reaction collision in the state’s history near Kalamazoo.
The goal would be to address those problems if they can be quantified and the money can be found.
The request for the study apparently came from Governor Rick Snyder who says he has heard from several local elected officials that there are concerns about the stretch of the interstate, that some call the “Galesburg Triangle”..
MDOT Spokesman Jeff Cranson says their study won’t just focus on that portion of I-94, but the entire corridor.
He says there are other stretches of the divided highway, like the narrow chute that carries the interstate through Jackson and portions of I-94 near Detroit that have been concerns for a long time.
The preliminary plan is to compare designs and crash statistics and determine if there are easy fixes, design issues or more expensive remedies that will require construction.
Cranson says it may just involve better signage or additional police patrols to keep speeds down. It could be climate change that could be contributing to the higher incidence of chain reaction collisions in the West Michigan snowbelt, or perhaps some other factor that they cannot control or fix.
There is always the likely possibility that it was human error that was to blame for the pileup.
Cranson says the study will take time. First the State Police will have to conclude their investigation into the massive chain reaction collision, reconstructing how all 193 cars, trucks and semis were involved.
WKZO news has been told that it may take until summer to complete their crash investigation.
The team will have to be assembled to gather the engineering and accident data to do comparisons.
No deadline has been set for the study to be concluded.
While widening the interstate to six-lanes has been mentioned by Congressman Fred Upton and others, Cranson says there is no money for that in the current budget.
He says even if voters approve additional road funding in May, they will need the $1.2-billion generated just to operate and preserve the current system, with no plans to spend that money on new construction.
Adding a lane in both directions from Kalamazoo to I-69 as Congressman Fred Upton has proposed would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and require a massive infusion of federal dollars.
