Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, U.S. Rep. Fred Upton (D-MI), State Transportation Director Paul C. Ajegba, and other officials celebrated the completion of US-31 Tuesday.
The highway, started in 1972 and stalled in 2004, will connect Napier Avenue and I-94 in Berrien County, officials said.
“This project will save Michiganders time and money while keeping them safer on the roads,” Gov. Whitmer said.
The $121.5 million project included building 2 miles of new highway, rebuilding 3.5 miles of highway on I-94, and rebuilding two freeway interchanges. Officials said the highway is expected to be open to traffic in the coming weeks as other coordinated projects are completed.
Funding for the project included $94 million from Whitmer’s Rebuilding Michigan program and $20 million in federal funding that was part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
“I want to thank the MDOT people who worked so hard,” Rep. Upton said. “But I also want to thank our governor because if Michigan moves forward, it’s because we have an infrastructure that it will allow us to do it.”
Construction of US-31, originally designed to be a 30-mile stretch of freeway between Indiana and I-94, started in 1972, with the first segment between US-12 and the Michigan/Indiana state line opening in 1979. Construction was halted when an environmental impact statement found that an area within the construction zone was a rare natural resource, providing a habitat to many unique species, including the Mitchell’s satyr butterfly on the federally endangered species list. Supplemental environmental impact statements determined an alternative freeway alignment that avoided the area. As a result, the project was halted in 2004. Construction began again in 2020.
“I never thought that I would ever see this day where it would be built,” said Berrien County Commissioner Jim Martin. “You wait for 20 years, and nothing happens, and then all of a sudden, in two years, you see this, and it’s just great.”