4th of July!

Happy Independence Day 'Merica.

While there are tons of traditions that go along with this day, the one that impacts the economy the most is people taking the day off from work and traveling.

Did you know Michigan stops as much construction as possible for the 4th of July weekend? Not a single contractor is working this Friday on state jobs. (In Berrien anyway.)
Check it out: http://www.michigan.gov/mdot/0,4616,7-151-51034-195267--,00.html

BUT HEY! They didn't open ALL of the closures. What gives?! Traffic closures that are remaining to be closed, well, let's just look at them:

- I-94, Berrien County, will have two lanes open in each direction from Sawyer to Bridgman. Okay, yeah this is 6 miles of new pavement, new drainage, and $15 million of other stuff. You can't just finish this up and open it to traffic. Those FIP don't need anymore lanes anyway.
- US-12, Berrien County, will have one lane open in each direction from Mayflower Road to M-139, between Buchanan and Niles. They haven't finished putting in a lane yet. And all of the cross-overs need to be paved. Yeah no.
- US-12 in New Buffalo, Berrien County, will have one lane open in each direction at the I-94 interchange. One lane will be open over the Galien River bridge east of Hoder Road. This is a reconstruct. Like all the concrete has been pulled out and they are doin' it over. That's a hellaton of work. There's nothing to open the traffic to. They can't have you drive on nothingness.

So they really did stop all construction that could be stopped. 



If you are traveling across the state, I recommend looking at the MiDrive map. Not only does it show construction projects currently up, but also accidents and the speed of the cars on the highway. This technology is starting to be used throughout the state more and more, with dynamic message boards going up on I-94. These board will tell you how long it will take to get to Detroit or other cities, as well as any other important information to our drivers. Pretty cool!
Check it out: http://mdotnetpublic.state.mi.us/drive/

MiDrive interface