Nearly every freeway system in metro Detroit will be under construction this weekend, July 27-28.

Macomb County:

- Eastbound I-696 will have the two left lanes open from Dequindre Road to I-94, 7 p.m. Friday - 5 a.m. Monday.

Oakland County:

- I-75 will have one lane open in each direction from Square Lake Road to Baldwin Road, 4 a.m. Saturday - 5 a.m. Monday.

- Eastbound I-96 will have one lane open at Wixom Road, 7 a.m. - 4 p.m. Saturday.

- Eastbound M-5 will be closed from Grand River Avenue to Farmington Road, 9 a.m. - 9 p.m. Friday.

- Eastbound M-5 will be closed from I-696 to M-102 (8 Mile Road), 9 p.m. Friday - 5 a.m. Monday.

- Westbound I-696 will have one lane open from US-24 (Telegraph Road) to I-275, 4 a.m. - noon Saturday.

- Eastbound I-696 will have one lane open from I-275 to US-24, 4 a.m. - noon Sunday.

- M-59 will be closed between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Opdyke Road, 10 p.m. Friday - 5 a.m. Monday.

Wayne County:

- Eastbound I-94 will be closed from I-96 to Conner Street, 9 p.m. Friday - 4 p.m. Saturday; remains closed from I-96 to I-75 until 5 a.m. Monday.

- Westbound I-94 will have one lane open from M-1 (Woodward Avenue) to US-12 (Michigan Avenue), 9 p.m. Friday - 5 a.m. Monday.

- I-375 will have one lane open in each direction from I-75 to Jefferson Avenue, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily Saturday and Sunday.

- M-10 will have one lane open in each direction from I-94 to M-8, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily Saturday and Sunday.

- Northbound M-39 (Southfield Road) will have one lane open from M-85 (Fort Street) to Dix-Toledo Road, 9 a.m. Friday - Thursday, Aug. 8.

- Northbound US-24 will have one lane open from I-96 to 5 Mile Road/Fenkell Avenue through mid-August.

And remember - those "jerks" who merge at the last second, experts say that's the right way to do it.


"With all the construction this weekend, this would be a great time for people to start practicing [the zipper merge]," Diane Cross with the Michigan Department of Transportation told us.

Departments of transportation in many states, including Michigan, have begun urging drivers to use the "zipper merge," a form of late merging in which drivers fill both lanes until the merge point, which is named after the way a zipper's "teeth" on either side merge together smoothly, one after the other.

"The zipper merge really is the best and most efficient and safest way to have multiple lanes, really two lanes, come into one in a construction zone. Because if everybody takes turns up at the point where you're supposed to merge, then we have a safer, smoother driving situation. Unfortunately though - or fortunately - in the Midwest we are very polite and we usually like to wait our turn and we get upset when other people don't wait their turn and run up to the front or whatever, but that really is the safest way," Cross explained.

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People who wait to merge at the last second are doing it right, experts say

The reason that zipper merging tends to help flow of traffic is that the roadway capacity is being used more fully.

In fact, traffic engineer in Colorado says using the zipper merge can reduce traffic delays up to 40 percent.

You can get a closer look at MDOT's construction going on this weekend online at www.michigan.gov/drive.

