Metro Detroiters North of Nine Mile and I-75

Avoid I-75 at Nine Mile. Alternate route would be to get off at 14 mile and head south on a service road to get back on at 8 mile and continue on your way to Ohio.

A tanker exploded under the bridge of nine mile and it has collapsed. It will be quite some time before that section of freeway opens again. I'm guessing at least a week. I'm being ordered to stay in my home and avoid the fumes.

^ - at least a week.

Northbound will likely be closed longer as that is where the accident occurred. It wouldn't surprise me if all of I-75 is closed for 6 months to repair the bridge.

A year ago practically the same thing happened to 2 bridges on the newly constructed I-94/I-75 interchange and that was rebuilt within 3 months.

The police said they might reopen the service drive later today. That should ease some congestion. The fire is still smoldering however and MDOT has not been able to survey the damage.

Alternate routes for CP would be south to 696. If you head east, get on Dequindre, take that to 8 or 7 mile and pick up I-75. To the west you can pick up Campbell/Hilton or Woodward and follow to any mile road south of 9 Mile.

Latest reports are that it'll be at least a week before the debris is completely cleared and they will be able to really inspect the road-deck.

They are going to demolish the whole bridge and rebuild it. Southbound may be able to open sooner with lane closures (once the demo is done) but northbound looks like it'll be a while as they may have to demo the road and do a complete rebuild of that section.

It should work now.

Got some photos here if you guys want to look.

http://s32.photobucket.com/albums/d1/bobert9/I-75%20bridge%20collapse/

It's asking for a password to view the album.

Should work now, John. I'll stop being lazy and make a flickr account.

Because of where I'm located this won't add more than a few minutes on my trip to CP tomorrow. Unfortunately for everyone else, expect a huge mess.

As Jugga stated they are rebuilding the whole bridge and northbound section of freeway. To help relieve the congestion , the planned closures of lanes and off/on ramps for 696 in the immediate area are on hold. This will help a little, but Dream Cruise weekend is in 3 weeks. Basically shutting down Woodward Ave, to -normal- traffic.

Check your traffic before heading down to the park for at least the next 3 or 4 weekends.

They are moving faster than initially reported, they expect the debris and bridge to be gone by Friday evening. No word yet on if SB will be partially open during construction though, or how long that may take. Good chance for a company to make some serious cash though.

Oh, and the guy that caused it should have 50% of his paycheck garnished until it is paid off.

That's some pretty extreme damage. There was a video on the news of a gas station surveillance video that caught the fireball. Pretty intense. It's amazing nobody got killed.

Having previously worked for a bridge construction company...

Once they get the SB overpass demoed, they'll only have to completely close SB & NB when they're setting the beams (usually, its one weekend each for demo and beam-setting). Once the beams are set (and before), you'll likely only see 1-lane closures on either shoulder on both NB & SB.

ADDED:
In fact, I worked for the very company that's working on this bridge. :)

Oh, and the driver feels no remorse:

Officials say the driver of the car involved in the accident, SaiedHaidarian-Shahri, 27, of Clawson was driving too fast when he lostcontrol on a curve while heading north on I-75 around 8 p.m. Wednesday.Haidarian-Shahri crossed two lanes of traffic and struck a fuel tankertruck driven by Michael St. John, 44, of Armada, officials said.

Whenasked by reporters from WJBK-TV (Channel 2) if he felt sorry,Haidarian-Shahri, who just received his driver's license in May, said"nope."

Classy! :)

Deport him.

It'll be a while for NB to be open though. As far as I know, the road is undriveable and needs to at least be resurfaced if not rebuilt from the ground up. I haven't seen yet if they have made that determination yet.

I see - I was curious whether it would be drivable. :(

Well, hopefully they can resurface for now, and repave later.

Well, they'd have to rebuild for the same reason the bridge collapsed. The heat from the fire may have weakened the rebar holding the road together. Last thing you want is for the road to fall apart while people are driving on it (I know, a novel concept for Michigan).

However, its only a 150 foot stretch so even a rebuild should go quickly once the bids are in.

Michigan Department of Transportation spokesman Rob Morosi saidpavement inspectors took core samples of the pavement at its mostdamaged spots in both directions and determined that the freeway willnot need a major rebuilding. Instead, a simpler, quicker resurfacingwill do.

The state is aiming for a Monday reopening “ifeverything goes as planned,” Morosi said this afternoon. “It has beenan extremely fast turnaround” from earlier projections that repairscould take weeks.

Free Press

Really good news.

JuggaLotus said:
Last thing you want is for the road to fall apart while people are driving on it

Creyts Road in Lansing already did that.... a year ago :) They're supposedly working on fixing it. They put cones up on Monday. I have yet to see work being done. Go Michigan.

Just got back from the "scene" and it almost looks like nothing ever happened. The damn helicopters are no longer above my house as they have been for the less 72 hours. The asphalt underneath is damaged, but they are now saying they may start paving today or tomorrow and have it open by Tomorrow.

The bridge may not be completed for sometime, obviously. The ramps have reopened.