Ferndale, Pleasant Ridge focus on Woodward construction as end nears

FERNDALE/PLEASANT RIDGE — In an update from the Michigan Department of Transportation, construction work on Woodward Avenue is expected to be completed by late November.

MDOT stated in an Oct. 2 press release that the construction work, taking place on Woodward Avenue between Eight Mile Road and Interstate 696, has continued with the building of bike lanes in the right lane of both northbound and southbound Woodward. Other construction work as part of the project includes sidewalk upgrades, drainage improvements, resurfacing and signal work.

“Currently, half of the lanes of northbound and southbound M-1 (Woodward Avenue) between M-102 (8 Mile Road) and I-696 have been resurfaced,” the release states. “Once the bike lanes are completed, the remaining lanes of M-1 will be resurfaced and final pavement markings will be installed.”

The construction work on Woodward runs through the cities of Ferndale and Pleasant Ridge, which have had to deal with increased traffic and detours for a year.

Ferndale City Manager Joe Gacioch said he doesn’t think the city is looking ahead to a post-construction mindset yet, but instead is focusing on the construction that’s currently ongoing.

“I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves for the reopening quite yet,” he said. “(MDOT is) focusing on installing all of the new bus islands and the buffers for the new bike lane, and that’s taking some time. It’s caused significant detours that have had to be put in place, which is constraining traffic.”

Gacioch believes the detours will be done by Oct 23, and once those are completed, MDOT can shift to lane resurfacing.

That being said, he is aware of how frustrating this period has been for residents and commuters and appreciates their patience.

“The difference with these detours in a city that’s dense like ours, where our downtown is so dense and we have a state highway running through it, is those detours have to plan for truck traffic,” he said. “We don’t want truck traffic to be navigating around our side streets. So the detours have to be kind of elongated because of that, because we want the truck to be detoured before they get downtown.

“That’s what’s different about this, is this is what comes with having the state highway, and it’s actually a good illustration of why we want to slow the state highway system down anyways,” he continued. “Because our detours are forcing truck traffic … to use other major streets like Livernois (and) Pinecrest, as opposed to coming down and using a smaller street like Allen. So we have to make the detours longer”

Pleasant Ridge City Manager James Breuckman agreed, stating that everyone is looking forward to construction being done.

“It’s been a definite disruption to the area, and I know everyone’s patience is starting to wear a little bit thin with it all, and I completely get that,” he said. “It doesn’t look like a lot of progress is being made while they’re doing all of the foundation and underground work and all that stuff, but then I think in the next week or two people are gonna see a lot of progress because they’re starting to pour concrete and they’re starting to do a lot of the above-ground work. So it’ll be good. We’re looking forward to getting that part of it done and getting the project ramped up.”