128 Widening

mass88 said:
I just assumed they were waiting for the northbound side overpass to be completed before shifting all of the 109 traffic onto the new overpasses before demolishing the old ones and rebuilding them.

The project design calls for 5 full travel lanes in each direction between Highland Ave and route 9, not sure how they're going to squeeze two additional travel lanes in on that stretch.


I also feel like they'll start work on one piece, work on it for a couple of weeks and then move and and start something else before they finish it.
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First 109: Once the new bridge over the Southbound lanes is completed traffic will be shifted to those new bridges and the old bridges demolished. The don't want to open the lanes yet as it would be a zig zag configuration going from new bridge over Northbound and then shifting back to the old bridge over Southbound.

Second: The road will not be 5 lanes between Route 9 & Highland Avenue. The road will be 4 lanes each direction with a full breakdown lane. Collector distributor roadways will be built both Northbound & Southbound between Highland Avenue and the new interchange at Kendrick Street.
 
I live right near this, and am surprised it happened so quickly, I thought it was supposed to take a few more months. A lot of people that live near the highway were complaining early on that the crews were extremely loud, even into the night, so this must have been a 24 hour a day operation, which surely contributed to the speed. Congestion on the other 2 major highways was a burden during this, so glad to hear my commute will now be better. There aren't really any public transportation options here in metro Detroit (aside from a bus which isn't really frequent service). Being the motor city, everyone really does own cars and drive everywhere, and the area isn't very densely populated. That being said, the roads here suck, highways included. A lot of highways are concrete, rather than asphalt, and the roads are in terrible condition. There is much more heavy truck freight here than back in MA, and I'm sure that contributes to the beating the roads take.
 
matredsoxfan said:
Second: The road will not be 5 lanes between Route 9 & Highland Avenue. The road will be 4 lanes each direction with a full breakdown lane. Collector distributor roadways will be built both Northbound & Southbound between Highland Avenue and the new interchange at Kendrick Street.
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I don't believe this is accurate. I think you're right about Highland-Kendrick, but the plan indicates 5 lanes in each direction between Rt.9-Highland. Not sure, however, what the story is on breakdown lanes and left shoulder for the 5-lane Rt.9-Highland stretch.
 
Deetroyt said:
I live right near this, and am surprised it happened so quickly, I thought it was supposed to take a few more months. A lot of people that live near the highway were complaining early on that the crews were extremely loud, even into the night, so this must have been a 24 hour a day operation, which surely contributed to the speed. Congestion on the other 2 major highways was a burden during this, so glad to hear my commute will now be better. There aren't really any public transportation options here in metro Detroit (aside from a bus which isn't really frequent service). Being the motor city, everyone really does own cars and drive everywhere, and the area isn't very densely populated. That being said, the roads here suck, highways included. A lot of highways are concrete, rather than asphalt, and the roads are in terrible condition. There is much more heavy truck freight here than back in MA, and I'm sure that contributes to the beating the roads take.
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I've been out to the Detroit area a couple of times and have wondered why they used concrete for some of their highways.
 
mass88 said:
I've been out to the Detroit area a couple of times and have wondered why they used concrete for some of their highways.
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Concrete pavement is more durable than asphalt. The problem is that, unlike asphalt, it cannot simply be resurfaced in overnight small impact projects periodically - it has to be rebuilt from scratch. Midwestern states with powerful freeze/thaw cycles use it for its durability, but when the bill comes due it's a real pain.
 
mass88 said:
http://www.mhd.state.ma.us/downloads/I_95add_lane/I-95_Route9_Central_Ave.pdf

This is what I was looking at regarding the 5 full travel lanes in each direction.
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Right on.

For what its worth, I won't be surprised if the right lanes in that segment get the "small dashes" treatment indicating an extended on / off merge lane like some parts of 93 have now between Andover and Boston - its not indicated on the plan, but they're very effective where they exist now and this layout (close spacing of high volume on and off ramps) fits the bill....
 
Equilibria said:
Concrete pavement is more durable than asphalt. The problem is that, unlike asphalt, it cannot simply be resurfaced in overnight small impact projects periodically - it has to be rebuilt from scratch. Midwestern states with powerful freeze/thaw cycles use it for its durability, but when the bill comes due it's a real pain.
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Wasn't 495 originally built with concrete instead of asphalt?


I am surprised that someone has not been able to develop a highly durable (able to handle heavy traffic volumes and extreme weather) and easily replaceable material for roadway construction. If there is one out there, I clearly do not know about it.
 
Equilibria said:
Concrete pavement is more durable than asphalt. The problem is that, unlike asphalt, it cannot simply be resurfaced in overnight small impact projects periodically - it has to be rebuilt from scratch. Midwestern states with powerful freeze/thaw cycles use it for its durability, but when the bill comes due it's a real pain.
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This. They don't patch small holes, they rip up the entire rectangular slab of concrete and lay whole new ones. But the where the slabs meet, there is a seam that always seems to get torn up quickly by plows or just lots of traffic.
 
I love that most of you did not see the main reason in only took 6 months for Mighigan DOT to do that project. NEWS FLASH: They shut the highway down 24/7 for 6 Months. They could do the same and just get 128 done but imagine rush hour without Route 128?
 
matredsoxfan said:
I love that most of you did not see the main reason in only took 6 months for Mighigan DOT to do that project. NEWS FLASH: They shut the highway down 24/7 for 6 Months. They could do the same and just get 128 done but imagine rush hour without Route 128?
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Difference here is that there are 2 other E-W highways to absorb the traffic, one north of the hwy in question and one south. If 128 was shutdown in MA, I can't imagine where all that traffic would go.
 
They've shifted traffic along 95 north to the recently finished portion of the bridges crossing 135 and the Charles River. Cleanup of the area between the north and south lanes has begun.
 
Wow...that was fast. I drove by about 11:00am yesterday and the paving trucks were still out doing finishing work with not a lane stripe to be seen on the bridges. I figured it would be at least another week before that opened.
 
Looks like some tree clearing activity started this week south of the Highland Ave. Exit
 
A Notice to Proceed was issued on November 17th 2014 to Barletta Heavy Division the contractor. They have a machine parked at the Highland Avenue interchange on I-95 SB. Grade stakes have been placed next to the breakdown lane though out there entire project area.
 
Drove by the Highland Ave/Kendrick area on the way to work this morning and they've really done a lot as far as clearing out trees and bushes. Dirt is being moved around. This area is more active than the Great Plain Ave/135 area that's still not fully completed.
 
Some photos of the progress. The stretch from just beyond Great Plain Ave until Route 9 is very active right now.

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Yup. And they're starting the median dig south of Kendrick so there's an outside chance lane 4 might make it 2 miles north of Great Plain Ave. in the SB direction only before year's end (NB will have to wait a bit longer to stretch past Great Plain). Might even be able to get rid of breakdown lane travel altogether SB since if they can finish the median and open that lane the pinch point on that side will be down to 1 mile only 9-to-Kendrick. And they'll need the shoulder space.


It looks like they're getting oh-so-close on the Route 109 overpass. Last time I drove it couple weeks ago the decking for the other half of the new overpass was going up and they were scraping up pavement in prep for the repave job later this summer that would officially extend the lanes both directions to Great Plain. They just have to finish underneath the overpasses so all remaining work is up top before they can haul the jersey barriers and equipment away from the shoulders. End of rush hour is painful in that spot right now because they start work early every morning to race to the finish. 109's a worse slowdown than Highland and 9 right now, so the worst will be behind them when that overpass is finally done.


Brand new SB exit to University Ave. going up too. They made ultra-fast work of the land-clearing. I didn't even know that one was in the cards. Way better ramp geometry and deceleration room. I wonder if they're planning to touch up the SB onramp once they decommission the old offramp and bulldoze that space. Onramp could use a little help too, although probably not much they can do to improve the geometry in the very limited space they have to work with.
 
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