Construction
Washington Street
The second installment of construction on Washington Street began yesterday. The road will be closed for the work through Aug. 15. Access to parking lots 3 and 15 and Hopkins Court will be closed during the construction and parking lot 6 will be closed. Hopkins Court can be accessed through parking lot 16. Traffic will be rerouted to Franklin Street during the construction. The project will widen the road for future bike paths and construction of two bus turnouts.

Fourth of July
Mount Pleasant
Fireworks
A 45-minute fireworks show will return to the Mount Pleasant area Friday night at dusk. The Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort will host the event, which will take place to the west of the hotel. Parking will be available at the hotel and casino along with the Tribal Operation Center. The last major fireworks show on the Fourth of July was in 2005 at the Isabella County Fairgrounds.

Driving

Holiday traffic
The Michigan Department of Transportation is removing most lane restrictions for the Fourth of July weekend, according to michigan.gov/mdot.
The restriction removals will begin at 3 p.m. Thursday, July 3 and continue through 6 a.m. Monday, July 7 for 70 percent of the lanes.
AAA Michigan estimates 1.1 million motorists will travel this weekend.

I-75
Beginning Wednesday, July 2, I-75 at the Zilwaukee Bridge near Saginaw will have northbound traffic shifted to southbound lanes. Southbound traffic will be detoured to I-675. On Saturday, July 5 north
bound lanes will be closed and traf-

fic will be detoured to I-675. MDOT encourages drivers traveling on I-75 through Saginaw to use alternate routes.

US-127
Upper peninsula, northwest, west and northeast travelers are advised to use US-127. In addition, M-DOT encourages motorists use these alternative routes:
Lansing to the east side of the state: take US-127 north to M-20 east, to US-10 east, to I-75 north of the Zilwaukee Bridge. Lansing traffic headed to the west side of the state should use US-131 or US-31 to avoid the extra traffic on US-127.
Brighton area, take US-23 north to I-96 west, to M-52 north, to I-69 west to US-127.
Ohio/Detroit area, take US-23 north, to I-94 west, to US-127.

E-mail the author: defaultuser