After nearly nine years and what has felt to many like a small army of trucks, the Innovate Mound rebuild in Sterling Heights is finally easing into its home stretch. Most of the new pavement on Mound Road is now open to traffic, while crews finish lighting, sidewalk gaps, and a sanitary sewer tie-in ahead of a final acceptance date targeted for July 2026. For drivers and nearby businesses, the payoff is expected to be smoother lanes, a continuous shared-use path, and behind-the-scenes technology designed to cut down on future maintenance headaches.
The multiyear effort rebuilt roughly nine miles of Mound Road between I-696 and M-59, added lanes in select sections, and constructed a shared-use path along the west side. Crews also embedded fiber and connected-vehicle technology throughout the corridor, according to Innovate Mound. Construction, which began in mid-August 2021, was phased so traffic could keep moving through the corridor during the busiest work seasons.
What’s left
City engineering notes show the heavy lifting is largely wrapped, but several close-out items are still on the punch list. Those include installation of median street lighting by DTE, filling sidewalk gaps on the west side between 18 Mile and 17 Mile, and completing a sanitary sewer run south of 18 Mile Road. HNTB’s resident engineer told the city council the project hit “substantial completion” in June 2024, but it still carries a formal final completion deadline in July 2026. By that point, crews will have installed dozens of drainage structures, roughly 40 miles of curb and gutter, and hundreds of pedestrian signals, as outlined in Sterling Heights.
Scale and tech upgrades
The Macomb County Department of Roads and the project team say the rebuild has included bridge rehabilitations, two culvert replacements at Bear Creek and McCoy Drain, and rehabilitation of nine other county drain crossings. The corridor also received modern signalization and a hybrid wireline and wireless communications network. County officials have pointed to new road-weather stations, connected-vehicle capabilities, and other intelligent transportation system elements as tools meant to improve safety, traffic flow, and long-term reliability across the region, according to Macomb County.
What drivers and businesses will see
As finishing touches go in, officials say motorists should start to notice a smoother, more predictable commute, helped by final pavement markings, landscaping, and median lighting. Sterling Heights City Engineer Brent Bashaw called the Innovate Mound project “a major win for all of Sterling Heights,” according to MLive. Businesses along the corridor have remained open through the close-out work and are expected to benefit from improved access and upgraded streetscape features once the dust fully settles.
Next steps and long-term outlook
City leaders and the project team emphasize that the work has been delivered on budget and say the new trees, decorative lighting, and wider sidewalks are intended to support both industry and neighborhood connections for decades, according to a Sterling Heights project update. Looking ahead, Macomb County and HNTB plan to study funding and design options for a second segment of Mound Road north of I-696, with the goal of extending the corridor’s upgrades into Warren, according to Macomb County.
