Worried about Traveling This Weekend? MDOT Says Construction Paused For Holiday Weekend

Driving long distances can be frustrating. From traffic to insanely high gas prices, it's easy to see why people want to avoid the roads as much as possible.

And during the summer, you have one of the most frustrating travel problems of all, which is avoiding the construction work on our many Michigan highways and interstates. So, if you're worried about needing to plan around the road closures around Michigan along your route: good news, your prayers have been answered.

MDOT announced last week that during the Fourth of July holiday weekend, they would be suspending a majority of their roadway projects for the weekend, and temporarily reopening lanes where possible in order to ease traffic backups during the holiday weekend.

According to AAA Michigan, they estimate more than 1.7 million Michigan residents will travel at least 50 miles this weekend, which is around 10% more people than traveled in 2021.

This fourth of July weekend is expected to be one of the highest traveled periods in recent years despite rising gas prices and inflation, because most Americans have been homebound for upwards of two years. But, thankfully, worrying about closed lanes will be the least of their problems this weekend.

Which roadways will be open?

From Friday July 1st, through early morning Tuesday July 5th, MDOT has announced they will be shutting down 100 of their 162 current active project sites for the Holiday weekend, which means several major delay points in recent months, will be relieved as people travel towards summer destinations in all directions.

If you'd like to know which projects remain open during this time, you can find a full list here.