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Local and state transportation officials have planned to rebuild I-94 in Detroit — the state’s largest and most urgent road project — for nearly two decades. Without money to move forward, however, this $1.5-billion-plus project has stalled. Meantime, the Michigan Department of Transportation has continued to patch the seven-mile stretch of freeway, from I-96 to Conner, spending more than $100 million in short-term repairs over the last decade.

Besides its money problems, the state has failed to make rebuilding the battered 55-year-old freeway a top priority. Even now, construction of the project is not set to start for more than a decade.

But all that might finally change. The Southeast Michigan Council of Governments is working with the state to find an innovative way, even in these tough times, to start construction on the project in two or three years. SEMCOG seeks to amend its long-range transportation plan in the next two or three months to move up the start date of the I-94 project, as well as the widening of I-75 in Oakland County.

“We’ve talked about this forever,” said Carmine Palombo, SEMCOG’s transportation czar. “Now we need to get it done. The longer we wait, the more expensive it gets.”

The new plan includes breaking the I-94 project into affordable chunks — spread over seven to 10 years — enabling the region and state to move forward on a pay-as-you-go basis. The first phase could redo the freeway’s bridges, rebuilding and lengthening them to accommodate the two additional lanes the project calls for. Mini-projects could move forward in a way that minimizes traffic congestion and other impacts on local residents and businesses.

For the plan to work, SEMCOG might have to delay other road work in its long-range transportation plan, such as improving

Article source: http://feeds.stateline.org/~r/StatelineorgRss-Transportation/~3/WltRBc23zME/Editorial-94-project-has-waited-long-enough