I-696 crews pour 2,500 feet of fresh concrete, rip it all up

Paul Egan | Detroit Free Press

A contractor had to tear up about a half-mile of freshly laid concrete on I-696 in Roseville late last week after it failed to meet quality standards, a Michigan Department of Transportation spokesman confirmed Tuesday.

Interstate Highway Construction, which won the $90-million contract to rebuild I-696 in Macomb County, agreed to replace a 2,500-foot stretch after MDOT inspectors said the concrete did not meet specifications, spokesman Jeff Cranson said.

The Colorado-based contractor, which has a Midwest office in Owosso, Mich., was experiencing equipment problems at the time the concrete was poured and will absorb the cost of the redo, Cranson said.

He couldn’t estimate the cost of the time and materials to Interstate, but said MDOT would have paid about $300,000 for that stretch of new freeway, just west of Gratiot.

"MDOT inspectors and the contractor noticed that the pavement had issues, mostly misalignment of the steel bars and inconsistency in thickness," Cranson said.

"The contractor agreed to tear it out and pour new concrete," he said.

"This is why the materials are under constant inspection during construction," Cranson said.

A call to Interstate Highway Construction was not immediately returned.

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Roseville resident Jerry Tranchmontagne, whose property backs onto the westbound I-696 service drive, also known as 11 Mile Road, said he was surprised to hear the sounds of machines smashing concrete, since crews had already destroyed and trucked away the original road surface several months ago.

"They started last Thursday, busting it all up," Tranchmontagne told the Free Press.

Tranchmontagne has been keeping a close eye on the project because of safety concerns related to huge volumes of traffic, including transport trucks, using the service drive because all westbound lanes of I-696 are closed between I-94 and Dequindre.

Cranson said two lanes of concrete had to be replaced. The third lane — the inside lane — is being used for trucks to haul materials.

Despite the misfire, the project remains on schedule, Cranson said. Reconstruction of both the westbound and eastbound freeway lanes is expected to be completed in November. Work is to begin on the service roads in April 2019, with that work slated for completion in September 2019.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4.