IONIA COUNTY, Mich. — As summer travel ramps up, drivers heading east on I-96 should expect delays as construction continues along the busy stretch of highway in Ionia County.
The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) says Fridays and Sundays have consistently been the busiest travel days through the nine-mile construction zone between Bliss and Sunfield roads, where eastbound traffic remains reduced to a single lane.
With neighbors taking weekend trips and summer vacations, those backups have become a familiar sight for many drivers.
WATCH: MDOT warns of weekend delays on I-96 amid ongoing construction
For Ionia resident Lynette Leslie, the construction has significantly changed her daily travel.
"It makes it difficult to do what you want to do when you want to do it," Leslie said.
As drivers leave the interstate in search of alternate routes, Leslie said local roads have become noticeably busier.
"To go to my mom's in Lake Odessa it used to be a 20-minute shot and now it's like 40, 45 minutes," she said.
The added driving time has also increased fuel costs for her family.
"It’s just ridiculous and it’s hard on gas,” Leslie said.
Another Ionia resident, Trae Mosoiu, said the ongoing construction has changed the way his family travels.
"There was a year where we didn't even take the highway, didn't even consider it," Mosoiu said. "We just kept to the backroads anytime we were going to Grand Rapids or Holland."
He said traffic on those alternate routes has only gotten heavier this construction season.
"This year, definitely a lot of slower traffic and also a lot more traffic on the backroads for sure," he said.
According to MDOT, traffic has generally continued moving efficiently through the work zone unless crashes or other incidents occur.
In a statement, an MDOT spokesperson said, "Fridays and Sundays have been the most congested. Eastbound is and has been in a single lane since the project started, so obviously we are seeing more backups on eastbound."
Despite the inconvenience, Leslie hopes the project will ultimately be worth the wait.
"You're hoping some good comes out of this, especially for as long as we've been waiting," she said. "When it's done it'll be a lot better."
Phase three of the I-96 reconstruction project is expected to be completed in November.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
