A major two-week construction project will start at Chums Corner Monday for concrete repairs – work that will require traffic to detour around the intersection in almost all directions except for one northbound and one southbound lane maintained on M-37. The Ticker has the latest on the project and detours, plus details on a Tuesday open house on a planned $20 million project in 2025 to rebuild US-31 from Sullivan Road to Reynolds Road, including installing a possible roundabout at Interlochen Corners.

Chums Corner
One of the region’s largest intersections and gateway points into Traverse City will undergo major traffic detours over the next two weeks due to a Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) project to repair and replace the road concrete, a project estimated to cost just over $1 million.

Contractors will begin setting up equipment Sunday before construction work and traffic detours start Monday. During the project – which is expected to go through Friday, July 28 – one southbound and one northbound lane of traffic will remain open through the intersection on M-37. Those vehicles will only be allowed to go straight, with no intersection turns permitted.

All other traffic will be detoured around Chums Corner. Northbound and southbound US-31 traffic will be directed around the intersection using Rennie School Road and East Silver Lake Road, while Beitner Road traffic will be detoured using Williams Road and Rennie School Road. To accommodate the increased traffic from detours, MDOT is installing left-turn signals in all directions at the US-31 and Rennie School Road intersection. After the project, the left-turn signals will remain active permanently for US-31 traffic turning onto Rennie School Road.

The detour approach is being used to allow the new concrete to cure, as well as for efficiency and worker safety reasons, according to MDOT. “This concrete pavement is over 10 years old, and it takes a lot of abuse from the traffic that goes through the corridor,” explains Melzar Coulter, assistant construction engineer for MDOT’s Traverse City Transportation Service Center (TSC). “It’s beginning to deteriorate more than we can keep up with using routine maintenance. Some of the panels will be replaced completely, while other joints will be repaired. It’s something we need to have traffic closed for.”

Coulter adds: “The reason we chose to go with the detour instead of working in smaller areas is we'll be able to get the project done faster and probably cause less headaches, because it'll be predictable through that time period and also safer for construction staff.” While closures will be 24/7 – there won’t be any night or weekend openings due to the concrete work involved – the project would have taken twice as long without the detour approach, according to MDOT.

Access to all residences and businesses around Chums Corner will be maintained during construction, though that access may only be available from one direction. The concrete work follows another recent MDOT Chums Corner project to replace the traffic signal with a new modernized system. That work included installing a new boxspan signal – a safer model that provides drivers with clearer visibility of the lights in all directions – and new controllers, detection equipment, crosswalks, and pedestrian signals. Another project will follow to complete crack treatment work west of the intersection on US-31.

Open House on 2025 US-31 Rebuild
MDOT will host a public open house Tuesday (July 18) from 4pm to 6pm at Interlochen Public Library to get feedback on a planned 2025 project to rebuild a 7.8-mile section of US-31 from Sullivan Road in Green Lake Township to Reynolds Road in Inland Township.

The project will pick up “right where our last project left off” when MDOT repaved and widened US-31 between Chums Corner and Sullivan Road in 2020, according to Krista Phillips, operations engineer for the Traverse City TSC. “We’re extending that (new design) with the center left-turn lane and widened shoulder that’s fully paved, so it’s a nice consistent corridor throughout.” Phillips notes that a few locations in the project area include narrow bridges over wetlands; in those spots, the road will “neck down” with no center turn lane.

The project – estimated to cost roughly $20 million, though that budget will be finalized once the design is complete – also includes the possible reconstruction of the US-31/South Long Lake Road/J. Maddy Parkway intersection, locally called Interlochen Corners. MDOT is evaluating a possible roundabout for the intersection, as well as other traffic options – such as modernizing the signal and adding left-turn signals and dedicated right-turn lanes.

Attendees at Tuesday’s open house will be presented with a large zoomed-in aerial map of the project area and sticky notes to add their feedback and suggestions. “Our plan is to take all the input from this public meeting, digest it, and incorporate it into our first set of plans,” says Phillips. “We’ll then look at our budget and what we can and can’t incorporate, then bring back a set of preferred options at a second public meeting.”

That process is similar to one MDOT is following now for the 2025 reconstruction of M-72/Grandview Parkway and M-22/Bay Shore Drive between Division Street and Cherry Bend Road, including the redesign of the M-72/M-22/Bay Street intersection. MDOT North Region Communications Specialist James Lake says numerous factors – including resident feedback – ultimately impact the final design for a reconstruction project.

“The input we receive at a public meeting is one of the factors we look at,” he says. “We’re also looking at the data from our past experience at the intersection, and what we would anticipate the safety and operations benefits would be of the different options.”