Residents of Milan, Michigan are dealing with a large increase in traffic on their roads. Due to a closure on US-23, roads are now being occupied by cars that would have otherwise taken the highway. This takes place at the start of the 2021 school semester, making September a rough month so far for Milan High School students and their parents making it from and to school.
This closure was caused by an accident when a truck ran into The Cone Street railroad trestle running over US-23. This crash weakened support beams and created conditions that officials would say are unsafe for driving. The closure on US-23 ranges nine miles long, making the influx of traffic in Milan reasonably large for highway drivers to reach their destination.
Due to the small-town nature of Milan, residents have not experienced this type of traffic prior. While already having to deal with school-related traffic, this new influx in traffic is detrimental. “It’s like rush hour traffic . . . It takes me too long to get to school. There are a lot of very bad drivers all of the sudden in Milan,” Dylan Gehringer, a resident of Milan and student at Milan High School, stated. Dylan also went on to describe further experiences of near-accidents at the merge lane on Main Street.
And although it is recognizably difficult and inconvenient for the people of Milan, US-23 drivers are largely dealing with this inconvenience as well. Many drivers are driving in a town that they are unfamiliar with, and the structure of Milan is presumably not able to handle the current degree of traffic. Despite being the go-to detour for many drivers currently, this detour for these cars to go through Milan is not official because downtown Milan is not included in the MDOT code. With this, this traffic is completely unexpected and unprepared for by both officials and drivers.
For now, there is no estimate on when the nine miles closed on US-23 will be reopened, but until then, traffic problems will likely remain present in Milan.
Comments