Keweenaw Report Your Source for Local News and Sports
Some good news greeting motorists in Houghton County on Wednesday morning. M-26 is fully reopened after a 15-day closure to replace a culvert at Quincy Creek, just north of Mason. MDOT crews were pulling barrels and other signage off of the road late Tuesday evening to get it back to normal on schedule. Construction at the Quincy Creek site will still be ongoing until September 10th according to the department’s website, perhaps requiring temporary lane closures and traffic control.
Another positive for the Hancock to Lake Linden stretch is the completion of culvert repairs near Ripley. That had begun back in May, with a temporary signal light controlling traffic for several months as the highway was down to one lane.
MDOT warns the news isn’t quite as rosy for the Townsend Drive project on the campus of Michigan Tech. The work is now expected to stretch to September 10th, after the start of the fall semester. Traffic on US-41 North is currently detouring onto Cliff Drive. During the worst traffic backups at the Portage Lake Lift Bridge, it has turned to bumper to bumper traffic through that stretch.
Keweenaw Report has reached out to Michigan Tech to see if they have plans to mitigate congestion involving faculty and staff parking lots and commercial deliveries that normally dominate the quiet two-lane road. Pedestrian walkways connecting sections of the Dow and M&M buildings together may be too dangerous for students while the detour is in place. So far, we have not received word on any policy changes for the first few weeks of the fall semester.
