It’s a fairly short stretch, just over six tenths of a mile, but it was probably one of the largest headaches for Ann Arbor residents this summer – the reconstruction of Ann Arbor-Saline Road. The various closures and detours affected the daily commutes of Ann Arbor motorists for approximately 5 months. At times, rather than simply being able to drive the six tenths of a mile, detours would snake traffic down another four and a half miles of already congested Ann Arbor roads. Even for those of us not driving Ann Arbor Saline Road daily, the additional congestion caused by the detour traffic made almost all commutes around the southwest side of Ann Arbor a slow crawl to our destinations.
It took the coordination of MDOT, the Washtenaw County Road Commission, the City of Ann Arbor, and Pittsfield Township to make this project a reality. During the reconstruction, over 15,000 cubic yards of concrete were placed along Ann Arbor-Saline Road by Lafrate Construction. Some portions of the Road required a full depth concrete section while others utilized a concrete overlay known as white topping.
Materials Testing Consultants provided Quality Assurance testing services for the Washtenaw County Road Commission. Throughout the project, MTC technician Mark Hertlein helped cast over seven hundred 6-inch X 12-inch concrete cylinders along with dozens of concrete beams. The concrete beams were used to test the concretes flexural strength using MTC’s portable beam tester, providing immediate test results in the field.
After months of hard work by the project team and endless traffic back-ups for Ann Arbor residents, the project was successfully completed. Ann Arbor-Saline Road was finally open to traffic! Motorists were pleasantly surprised by the smooth riding pavement and shorter daily commutes. Because of the outstanding team effort to complete this project, Ann Arbor-Saline Road was awarded the Michigan Award of Excellence in the Overlay Category by the Michigan Concrete Association.
