On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, conversations about celebrations of major road and bridge projects completed by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) in communities across the state.

This week, a focus on the expansion of the U.S. 131 interchange with the U.S. 131 Business Route that links the freeway with downtown Kalamazoo. Jill Bland, executive vice president at Southwest Michigan First, talks about her decades of advocacy for the project and what it will mean to businesses her organization supports, as well as commuters.

Later, Trevor Block, manager of  MDOT’s Transportation Service Center (TSC) in Davison, talks about a celebration of another phase of rebuilding a segment of the I-475 corridor in Flint. 

This phase rebuilt approximately three miles of I-475 from the Flint River to Carpenter Road as part of a $141 million investment.

Next week, the focus on project completions with conversations about a new bridge carrying Fruit Ridge Avenue over I-96 west of Grand Rapids and a roundabout replacing the traditional intersection of M-72 and M-22 just outside Traverse City.