US-131 Closed: MDOT Says You Should Expect To Add This Long To Your Commute

Easter Sunday wasn't just a holiday in West Michigan, it also marked the start of one of the biggest construction projects scheduled in the Grand Rapids area for 2024. If US-131 is a part of your daily commute, you'll want to pay close attention.

For the next four weeks, US-131 Northbound is closed at M-11 (28th Street) for construction crews to make critical repairs to the bridges over Plaster Creek. One lane of NB US-131 will stay open from Burton Street to Pearl Street, while northbound entrance ramps will be closed at Market Avenue, 28th Street, 36th Street and 44th Street.

After the Northbound side is finished in four weeks, the construction will switch to the southbound side for an additional 4 weeks worth of construction. the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) expects this to cause delays and rerouting for around 120,000 commuters in West Michigan.

On top of the big US-131 closure, MDOT says there will also be some short-term closures for the northbound on and off ramps at Burton, Hall, Martin Luther King Jr. and Wealthy streets. These will all run around four days each, at separate times.

READ MORE: US-131 in Grand Rapids Closing For Repairs 

How much time will this add to your daily commute? MDOT is hopeful that the time added to your drive will be in the 10-15 minute range, but it could get much worse if people don't try to take detours earlier than the M-11 exit.

Where can you detour to avoid the mess? MDOT issued this map as a suggestion of how you can avoid the traffic, but if you're just trying to get to the north end of Downtown Grand Rapids, this could add a lot of miles to your car over time.

The best you can do is be patient, be aware of what's happening, and try to use map apps such as Google Maps, Apple Maps and Waze to try to calculate the fastest route around the traffic.