“The inconvenience is way outweighed by the benefit that we’re going to be getting,” says Tammy Burns, who lives off of Old US-131.
A rough road ahead as drivers will be detoured away from this busy Northern Michigan road but it will be worth it.
MDOT held a meeting on Thursday to discuss a $5.5 million reconstruction project that is scheduled to start April 10th and end by October 20th.
It will be a full reconstruction of about 5.8 miles of Old US-131 between Cadillac and Manton.
The construction will require a detour on Boon Road, US-131 and M-42.
“I know that people are very interested in seeing the road repaired because it is deteriorated quite severely," says Rick Liptak, manager of MDOT Transportation Service Center.
A road that many drivers avoid because of the condition it’s in, is getting completely redone. At Thursday’s meeting, MDOT laid out their two part plan to concerned drivers.
“We’re going to do half of it at a time. The landfill has a lot of heavy traffic coming and going; their trucks with their garbage and stuff. So we will be doing half let’s say south of the landfill first and then we will be doing the section north of landfill on the second stage,” says Liptak.
Old US-131 is a crumbling road filled with potholes, that drivers say is dangerous. MDOT says they will be tearing up ten inches of gravel and four inches of asphalt, culverts that are 30 feet deep and then putting in new asphalt.
“If it affects us negatively in the short run, if that road does get fixed and it is easier to drive on, I know there’s a lot of people who prefer to take old 131 instead of the highway so that could help us as well and could bring more business in," says Brooklynne Lane, from The Car Corner.
While this might be an inconvenience for a few months, residents and business owners know the long term benefits are greater.
“The roads needed it for a long time and I really don’t think for what they’re doing its going to be that big of an inconvenience. We all have to put up with things and I’m sure that me and my neighbors will all work around it,” says Burns.
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