Part of U.S. 127 in Lansing area to be closed completely Saturday

LANSING — Part of U.S. 127 will be completely closed for much of Saturday while crews repair the zipper barrier used to reconfigure traffic lanes during the ongoing rebuild of the freeway between Interstates 96 and 496.

The freeway will be closed in the construction zone from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday (May 11), the Michigan Department of Transportation said.

Crews need to fix the zipper barrier, guardrail and shoulders in that area after a couple of recent crashes, MDOT spokesman Aaron Jenkins said. In one of those incidents, an "unpermitted oversized load" damaged the zipper wall. In the other, a semi truck went off the road and damaged the shoulder and guardrail, he said.

Message boards will post detour information, MDOT said. But the agency was adivsing drivers to find alternate routes.

MORE:Road project will snarl traffic on US 127 between Lansing, I-96 for next two years

Delays and lane and ramp closures are by now familiar to drivers who travel the U.S. 127 corridor in Lansing, East Lansing, Lansing Township and Delhi Township.

Since MDOT started rebuilding the stretch between the two interstates earlier this year, all traffic has been shifted to the southbound side while workers rebuild the northbound side. Next year, all traffic will be moved to the new northbound lanes while they work on the southbound side.

The zipper barrier is being used to maintain two northbound lanes and one southbound lanes through the area in the morning and two southbound lanes and one northbound lane in the afternoon and evening. It won't be necessary next summer because MDOT plans to maintain two lanes of traffic in each direction on the rebuilt northbound side.

Contact Ken Palmer at kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on X @KBPalm_lsj.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Part of U.S. 127 in Lansing area to be closed completely Saturday