ROMULUS, Mich. (FOX 2) - Road construction impacting travel to Detroit Metro Airport is expected to begin this month with plans to wrap up by 2027.
The three-year project is expected to create more congestion at the busy airport, which will rehabilitate Dingell Drive, which travels under a tunnel and connects traffic to the McNamara Terminal.
The Wayne County Airport Authority asked customers to allow extra time to drive to DTW due to the construction. It will impact traffic flow from the Evans Terminal to the Eureka Road exit, as well as entrance ramps near the McNamara terminal.
Construction will be year-round, a release from the authority said. Access to parking decks and lots will not be impacted.
Work will start Jan. 8 and both directions of traffic will be reduced to two lanes in each direction. The lane closure will be until Feb. 29, before all traffic will be shifted to the southbound lanes of the roadway and tunnel.
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The first phase of work will go from March 2024 to mid-2025. The second phase will start in 2025 and include fixing exterior drainage issues in both tunnels.
The authority was awarded an $85.5 million contract for the project, which comes mostly from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that passed in 2021.
"We appreciate our customers’ patience as we work to improve the safety of our infrastructure critical to operations at DTW," said Wayne County Airport Authority CEO Chad Newton. "We are committed to limiting the impact on our customers by working year-round to complete construction as quickly as possible."