TROY, Mich. (WXYZ) — The Michigan Department of Transportation is starting a two-year, $10 million project to install sound barriers along Interstate 75 in Troy to bring relief to noisy neighborhoods.
Watch Jolie Sherman's video report:
Starting Saturday, crews will install two sound walls along the northbound lanes of I-75. One wall will stretch from Wattles Road to Long Lake, and the other from Crooks Road to Coolidge Highway, covering a total of 2.7 miles.
Drivers can expect multiple lane closures this weekend as crews place temporary concrete barriers and implement a traffic shift.
"Really, the impact to drivers is going to be most felt in the initial steps, which begins tomorrow and probably will continue through the week, and maybe even next week, depending on weather and progress," MDOT spokesperson Rob Morosi said.
After those steps, drivers will have three lanes open during peak travel periods while crews set the foundation and build the noise barriers.
FULL INTERVIEW: MDOT's Rob Morosi talks about Troy soundwall project
For residents living near the highway, the hum and buzz of traffic fills the air.
"I’m really excited. I think my house is one of the closest houses to the highway," Leon Zhou said. "In the backyard, even just regular conversation will be disturbed by the noise."
Zhou's next door neighbor has tried taking matters into their own hands, setting up green tarps in the backyard to absorb some of the noise.
"My dad came up with this temporary solution, which now turned out to be permanent," Apoorva Akalankam said.
Akalankam says her family came up with this idea three years ago when they were hosting her graduation party and wanted to find a way to address some of the highway noise.
"There’s our backyard, there’s the road, and there’s the highway, so there’s two sets of traffic that we’re really dealing with," Akalankam said.
"I’m glad that this project is finally coming up, and I’m just hoping that other kids in the neighborhood that are affected by this aren’t growing up with highway noise around them," Akalankam said.
Troy Mayor Ethan Baker is advocating for residents who want sound walls but live in neighborhoods that do not meet the density requirements needed to install them.
"I have lobbied our federal representatives to look and see if there’s something they can do at the legislative level to change the guidelines, but there hasn’t been much action on that... But the bulk of people who needed one are getting one, and it’s a wonderful thing," Baker said.
——————————————————————
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
