Road Work Coming: US-31 Detour, Fourteenth Street Repairs & More

Even as the summer season winds down, road construction work remains as busy as ever.  A major closure of US-31 near Interlochen is on deck for several weeks starting September 2, city crews will start repairing Fourteenth Street today (Monday), traffic shifts are coming as work progresses on Grandview Parkway, and more projects are in the works in The Ticker’s look at area road updates.

US-31
A significant weeks-long highway detour will go into effect on US-31 starting next Tuesday. Ahead of the planned $32.5 million, 7.8-mile rebuilding of US-31 from Sullivan Road to Reynolds Road in 2026 – including a planned roundabout at the J. Maddy Parkway/South Long Lake Road intersection – the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) has been preparing detour routes this year and installing temporary traffic signals. That work is wrapping up, according to MDOT North Region Communications Specialist James Lake, but another key stage of preparations will start after Labor Day: removing poor soil near the Tonawanda and Cedar Hedge Creek bridges, which has caused excessive road settlement.

Clearing work that some residents have noticed recently near the highway is from “borrow” areas, “where the contractor expects to gather some suitable materials to replace some of the unsuitable materials/peat that will be removed near the bridges,” Lake says. To tackle the soil project, MDOT will close US-31 to through traffic between the S West Silver Lake Road/County Road 633 intersection and Gonder Road from September 2 to October 18. Traffic will be detoured around the work zone using CR-633, Youker Road, Karlin Road/J. Maddy Parkway, Riley Road, and Gonder Road (pictured; view all US-31 2025/2026 detour maps here). Temporary adjustments will be made to the signal timing at the S West Silver Lake Road/County Road 633 intersection, and multiple temporary traffic signals will be in place along the detour route this fall.

J. Maddy Parkway – a portion of which is closed near Interlochen Center for the Arts for construction on a pedestrian tunnel – is planned to reopen just in time to handle the heavy US-31 detour traffic. Eric Gray, Interlochen’s executive director of facilities, maintenance, and environmental services, says paving work is planned to take place today and tomorrow on the road. On Wednesday and Thursday, workers will complete “final grading along the edge of the road” and paint the road markings, Gray says. Barring any weather delays, J. Maddy Parkway will reopen to traffic Friday. Gray notes that the pedestrian tunnel will not open for use until mid-October. “We will continue to have work on both sides of the road finishing up the stormwater systems, retaining walls, trails leading to the tunnel entrances, and landscaping,” he says.

Fourteenth Street
After city commissioners approved purchasing material for the project last week, city crews will start work today on a mill-and-pave project on Fourteenth Street. Work will include milling two inches of asphalt along both the curb and centerline, then overlaying three inches of new asphalt on the drive lanes between Cass Street and Maple Street, according to a city release. The Veterans Drive intersection will be excluded since it’s already in good condition; its exclusion will help minimize traffic disruptions.

Starting today, Fourteenth Street will be closed to westbound traffic between Cass Street and Union Street. That segment is expected to be completed by Wednesday. “Once this segment is complete, the streets division will continue working west block by block,” according to the city. “The project is anticipated to be completed September 12.” The releases notes that the repairs are “expected to extend the roadway’s life, improve drivability, and reduce emergency maintenance needs for the next three years until a full mill-and-overlay of the corridor is planned to take place.” Traverse City is in line to receive over $1 million in federal funding for Fourteenth Street work from the region’s Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) in 2028.

Grandview Parkway
Work continues to progress on Grandview Parkway/M-22/M-72, including a shift earlier this month that moved Grandview Parkway “to one lane in each direction on the new lanes on the bay side of the road, and moved M-22 traffic north of the M-72 intersection to the west lanes of the roadway while work resumed on the bay side of the road,” according to Lake. He notes that work on the M-72/M-22 roundabout is currently focused on the southwest quadrant of the intersection. “In three to five weeks, we expect to shift traffic to use the roundabout,” Lake says. During the Labor Day holiday weekend, one lane will be open in each direction. The overall project is still on track to be completed in November, Lake says.

Road Commission Updates
> Construction work has wrapped up on two key east-side roads, with the Grand Traverse County Road Commission (GTCRC) recently announcing that Three Mile Road and Townline Road have reopened to traffic. GTCRC board members passed a resolution – with support from East Bay and Garfield townships – to put a weight restriction on Townline Road, restricting use by all non-essential and non-emergency commercial vehicles. GTCRC Manager Dan Watkins said the repairs to Townline aren’t “a long-term fix, but in order to save it for as long as we possibly can, we want to keep the semis off.” Road commissioners asked staff to reach out to Garfield and Long Lake townships to gauge interest in putting a similar weight restriction on the soon-to-be repaired Barney Road, with paving work set for mid-September.

> A significant construction project is on deck for Cass Road next year. Road commissioners this month approved a not-to-exceed contract of $178,000 with Wade Trim for design services for the project, which covers two sections of Cass – South Airport to Hartman and Hartman to the Cass Road/Robbins Bridge – that are now being approached as one project for 2026. A significant portion of the project funding is coming from the regional MPO.

GTCRC handled design work in-house for the segment between the bridge and Hartman, which is a crush-and-shape road reconstruct. Wade Trim will handle design from Hartman to South Airport – which Watkins said is “a lot more complicated” and entails creating a three-lane section through the industrial zone – as well the modernization of the Cass/South Airport signal. The signal upgrade should “improve Cass Road signal timing and overall traffic flow along the corridor,” according to a staff memo. Staff said they are still working out detour plans that will retain access to the numerous businesses along the corridor.

Construction is targeted to begin after the National Cherry Festival next year and ideally wrap before school begins, with road commissioners flagging the importance of timing due to the TCAPS bus garage being located in the work zone.