Crews working to repair buckling pavement on EB I-94 in Detroit

Detroit — The Michigan Department of Transportation has announced the closing of the two right lanes of eastbound Interstate 94 at Warren because of buckling of the pavement.

According to MDOT, the buckling is likely to be related to Monday’s extremely heavy rains that submerged the freeway for more than a day.

“We didn’t have any initial problems on the freeway when we got the water off and reopened all the roads on Wednesday, but we now have an issue at Interstate 94 at Warren,” said MDOT spokeswoman Diane Cross.

“We are closing the right two lanes shortly to repair and that will leave only the left lane open. It’s unknown how long it will be blocked.”

According to the MDOT average daily traffic map, that section of I-94 is traveled by about 130,000 vehicles per day, which would break down to about 65,000 vehicles for the eastbound lanes.

On Wednesday, MDOT announced that it estimated that the primary costs of cleaning up the area freeways after Monday’s cloudburst would be about $500,000.

MDOT said there was a chance that the costs, which would come from the state’s general fund, would be offset with federal emergency funds.

Possible alternate routes for motorists would be McGraw or Warren.

TGreenwood@detroitnews.com

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