MDOT Begins Design Phase for Next Road Project Near Traverse City

MDOT is now taking public comment for it’s next big project just west of downtown Traverse City. It’s now in the early design stages, and it will be another project that will impact Traverse City traffic.

They’re looking ahead to 2025 to start rebuilding a 2.2 mile stretch of M-72, from Division Street and M-22 out to Cherry Bend Road in Elmwood Township.

The road was originally built in the 1950’s. MDOT will be addressing everything from surface condition and drainage issues, to sidewalks and traffic lights.

Lucas Porath is the Traverse City TSC Project Manager with MDOT. He says, “It’s going to be a full reconstruction, removing pavement, and rebuilding. We’ll be extending some of the non-motorized facilities. You know, TART trail, sidewalks, a lot of other improvements along those lines.”

MDOT held a public meeting Tuesday and says input is welcome. “We’re just looking to let people know this is coming, get initial feedback from people or input from people,” Porath says. “This intersection, the M-72 intersection, is a major intersection so there’s a lot of talk about that. So we’ll be looking at a range of options for that. One of the things that got a lot of attention (at the public hearing) was a roundabout as a potential alternative. So we’ll be looking into that.”

This is the second phase of a major MDOT project, the first is to rebuild Grandview Parkway from Garfield to Division. That project is now set to start in the fall of 2023 and run through most of 2024. The west-end phase would begin in Spring of 2025.

MDOT Spokesman James Lake says the Grandview Parkway project was delayed to the fall of 2023, instead of the spring. He cites a couple of factors: supply chain delays; and Traverse City’s plans for major bridgework in 2023 that would conflict with the Parkway project if both started at the same time.