Residents will have an opportunity to get a detailed look at an upcoming $37.5 million rebuild of US-31 at an open house today (Tuesday) from 4pm to 6pm at Golden Fellowship Hall hosted by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT). The nearly eight-mile rebuild – which includes a new roundabout at Interlochen Corners – will start with detour route improvements next year ahead of the corridor reconstruction in 2026.

The project area spans both Grand Traverse and Benzie counties on US-31 between Reynolds Road and Sullivan Road. Work is primarily safety-driven, according to MDOT Project Manager Lucas Porath, and includes “adding center left-turn lanes throughout the corridor, widening the shoulders, and adding rumble stripes.” MDOT considered two options for the South Long Lake Road/J. Maddy Parkway intersection at Interlochen Corners – including signal modernization or a roundabout – and ultimately selected a two-lane roundabout as the planned design.

“It cost more money – the project wasn’t originally scoped to include a roundabout – but as we dug into it, we looked at the safety benefits it could bring,” Porath says. “We expect it to reduce injury and fatal crashes by 78 percent. That’s a huge safety benefit. It will also move traffic faster.”

Porath says MDOT counted traffic during a sold-out Brandi Carlile concert at Interlochen Center for the Arts last summer to model the intersection flow. MDOT still needs to finalize right-of-way acquisitions on all four intersection corners to accommodate roundabout construction. “We’re in those conversations and don’t anticipate we’ll run into issues, but (the roundabout design) is contingent on solidifying those right-of-way negotiations,” Porath notes.

The roundabout will have ADA-compliant ramps and crosswalks for pedestrians and non-motorized users, including connections at Interlochen Corners from Tom’s to Kozy Court and the new Hudson development. Project work will also include removing poor soil near the Tonawanda and Cedar Hedge Creek bridges, which has caused excessive road settlement.

Work is expected to start next summer to prepare detour routes around the US-31 corridor so that county roads can handle diverted state highway traffic. Detour routes will include Gonder Road, Riley Road, J. Maddy Parkway, Karlin Road, Youker Road, County Road 633, Reynolds Road, Cinder Road, and Diamond Park Road. Temporary traffic signals and four-way stops will be installed at key intersections along the detours. Paving of the US-31 shoulder and removal of the poor soil will take place next fall. The soil work will require a full closure of US-31, with both northbound and southbound traffic diverted using County Road 633, Youker Road, Karlin Road, J. Maddy Parkway, Riley Road, and Gonder Road.

With preparation work complete, the main corridor construction will take place in 2026 in two segments. The first will take place from Sullivan past South Long Lake and include the roundabout construction. Southbound US-31 thru traffic will be maintained, while northbound US-31 traffic will be detoured using the same route as for the soil removal. Once segment one is complete, work will begin from South Long Lake past Reynolds. Southbound US-31 thru traffic will again be maintained, while northbound traffic will be detoured on Reynolds Road, Cinder Road, Diamond Park Road, Gonder Road, Riley Road, and J. Maddy Parkway. During both segments, southbound traffic will shift lanes as crews complete one side of the highway and then the other.

The project has a $37.5 million total budget – including engineering and design – with construction representing $32.5 million of that figure. The US-31 rebuild is one of two major upcoming MDOT projects in the Traverse City area, with the other being the continuation of Grandview Parkway reconstruction in 2025 from Division Street in Traverse City and M-22 (Bay Shore Drive) to Cherry Bend Road in Elmwood Township. That project, estimated at close to $25 million, includes a new roundabout at the M-72/M-22 intersection incorporating Bay Street.

MDOT’s investment in the region across just four projects – the above two, this year’s rebuild of East Front Street/Grandview Parkway from Garfield Avenue to Division Street, and the planned redesign of the US-31/Three Mile Road intersection in 2026 – is now estimated at almost $90 million in three years. That will likely be it for major transformational projects for the near future, though Porath notes a $35 million project is on deck for Manistee in 2027.

As for work underway now on East Front Street, MDOT North Region Communications Specialist James Lake notes crews are on schedule to reopen the corridor as planned before the National Cherry Festival. Workers will take a break during the festival – allowing the corridor to be fully opened for the event – before starting the next phase of work on Grandview Parkway from East Front Street to Division Street. “If the weather cooperates and work progresses as it has been, we’ll get it open as soon as possible and not wait until the 27th (of June), which is what it’s scheduled for now,” Lake says.