How Michiganders are planning to avoid traffic & celebrate the July 4 holiday

The Independence Day holiday is here and if you haven't started heading to your destination, you may want to hit the road soon.

This Fourth of July, AAA is predicting the biggest holiday travel season ever with 70.9 million Americans expected to hit the roads or airport.

"Tomorrow I’ll be doing some golfing with some buddies, might check out a cool restaurant, might go Up North, check out the lake, get on some jet skis," said Jonny Sembrano of Lapeer. "96 is usually always traffic. There’s always construction going on."

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The Michigan Department of Transportation is now working to make traveling to holiday destinations by car a little bit easier lifting travel restrictions and suspending work at dozens of projects across the state.

The agency says this will impact 105 of the 174 road projects happening statewide where they will move cones and barrels. MDOT says there will be adjustments made 275, M-1 (Woodward) near 9 mile and M-5 (Grand River).

"We try to do something where we’ll barbecue at my house or go somewhere because I have 5 kids," said Arlena Lawrence who is from Chicago.

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Lawrence says this year, she and her family are heading to a water park for the holiday. She’s hopeful they'll bypass back ups as they head through traffic.

"We’re supposed to head out early. So yes I'm sure it’s going to be packed. Everybody's getting ready earlier so 8 a.m. we’ll be out," Lawrence said.

MDOT says they’ll be adjusting barrels in construction zones where ever possible but advise drivers that some equipment will remain, so be alert.

"We’re getting out of the heat and we’re here to see family and friends and just enjoy the beautiful scenery that Michigan has to offer," said Dayna Moser as she passed through Novi Wednesday with her family.
"We’re gonna barbecue with friends. We’re gonna do the 5k run to support the art fair in Harbor Springs. We’re gonna check out the fireworks and do a shrimp boil with friends."

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Moser says she and her family drove up from Dallas, Tx. They left in the middle of the week hoping to avoid hiccups in the road.

"It really wasn’t that bad. It got a little busy between Indianapolis and Detroit and so far, hopefully, we don’t have traffic heading north but we’ll see," Moser said.

MDOT says construction zones will resume at 6 a.m. Monday.

The following projects in Metro Detroit will remain:

Macomb County

• Clinton River Road is closed under M-53 (Van Dyke Avenue).

Oakland County

• I-75 has two lanes open in each direction between M-15 and the Oakland/Genesee county line.
• WB I-75 is closed and detoured from M-1 (Woodward Avenue) to I-75.
• I-96 has two lanes open in each direction between I-275 and Kent Lake Road.
• I-696 has two lanes open in each direction between I-275 and Lahser Road.

Wayne County

• Wayne Co. Cass Avenue is closed over I-94 for bridge rebuilding. The John R Street entrance ramp to westbound I-94 is also closed. The Outer Drive entrance ramp to northbound I-75 is closed.
• WB I-96 ramp to westbound I-94 is closed.
• M-5 (Grand River) has two lanes open in each direction between M-102 (8 Mile Mile) and Berg Road.
• M-14/I-96 has lane closures in each direction between Sheldon Road and Newburgh Road, including various ramp closures.
• M-39 has lane closures in each direction between I-94 and M-153 (Ford Road).
• M-85 has one lane open in each direction at Outer Drive.
• M-85 has one lane open in each direction between 14th Street and West Grand Boulevard.
• The M-102 (8 Mile Road)/M-53 (Van Dyke Avenue) intersection has various lane closures.
• US-24 (Telegraph Road) has two lanes open in each direction at M-102 (8 Mile Road) with the following ramps closed:
• The southbound US-24 (Telegraph Road) ramps to eastbound and westbound M-102 (8 Mile Road).
• The eastbound and westbound M-102 (8 Mile Road) ramps to southbound US-24 (Telegraph Road).
• NB US-24 (Telegraph Road) has one lane open at Eureka Road. The northbound I-75 ramp to northbound US-24 is closed.

More information about all of the roads impacted statewide can be found here .

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