Michigan Department of Transportation—US-23 Flex Route

The US-23 corridor north of Ann Arbor experiences heavy peak hour directional traffic southbound in the morning and northbound in the afternoon and has been the subject of study and improvements since 2007. While MDOT was able to implement short-term solutions for congestion, operations and incident management through the implementation of Intelligent Transportation System and expansion of a Freeway Courtesy Patrol, a long-term solution to adequately address safety, recurring and non-recurring congestion and incident management was needed.

The solution was a $119 million 9-mile US-23 Flex Route. The project included construction of road, bridge and interchange operational improvements and Active Traffic Management (ATM) strategies for the US-23 corridor to address daily recurring and non-recurring traffic, incident management and overall motorist safety. Using the Flex Route’s lane control gantry system, MDOT can now dynamically manage congestion through technology and operational ATM strategies including dynamic lane control and shoulder use, variable speed advisories, and queue warning. For drivers on US-23, this meant better mobility, greater travel information, and increased safety for their daily commutes.