We have another big week ahead of us on M-59. Beginning this Saturday, June 17, we will start the first of the two 10-day closures at Schoenherr Road. The closure will follow the same procedure that we had for Hayes Road last month. For this closure, access to M-59 from Schoenherr will be closed as will travel across NB and SB Schoenherr Road. The detour will be to take either 19 Mile or 21 Mile to Hayes. This work is necessary to rebuild the intersection in as little time as possible. We are starting this work now to make sure that we complete the work prior to the July 4 ^th Holiday. 

 

We began our production paving on EB M-59. Over the next two weeks, we will have all of the new pavement that we've been working on paved with Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA). Often we are asked how we are building our roads to last. One of the ways that pavements begin to fail is when joints between the lanes open up and allow moisture in. This typically happens when one lane is paved at a time, night after night. On this particular project, we required the contractor to pave the mainline joint in echelon, which means that the joint is paved together so there is no gap in the joint. Our contractor has elected to go above that requirement and pave the joint line between the shoulder and the mainline in echelon as well. This essentially means that we are paving 36 feet wide, which may not seem like a feat but it is a big step forward into helping this pavement last longer. Here are a few pictures from Monday night's paving (don't worry, the footprints in "Photo 2" will not show up in the final pavement after the roller passes over them):   PHOTO 1  .   PHOTO 2

 

In the coming weeks, we will share some other interesting things that we are doing which make this a truly special project.