A $250 million stretch of I-96 in Oakland County that lets drivers use the shoulder as an extra lane during rush hour has cut crashes along the corridor by 37% and is now up for a national transportation award. The Michigan Department of Transportation says the I-96 Flex Route, which runs between Kent Lake Road and the I-275/I-696/M-5 interchange, has also improved eastbound peak-hour travel time reliability by 41% and westbound reliability by 28%, according to state officials.
The recognition comes from the Mid America Association of State Transportation Officials, which named the I-96 Flex Route a regional winner in the Best Use of Technology and Innovation (Large Project) category, beating out 27 regional submissions across a 10-state region, according to AASHTO Journal. The award was one of 12 regional honors handed out in August as part of the 2026 America's Transportation Awards, a competition presented by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, which represents transportation departments across all 50 states, per MLive.com. Three projects from each region, including the I-96 Flex Route, will now advance to a national competition this fall, MLive reports, citing the association.
How the Flex Lanes Actually Work
The flex route concept is straightforward in theory: the inner shoulder along a 12-mile stretch of I-96 becomes a legal travel lane during the busiest hours of the day, then reverts to a standard shoulder the rest of the time. Active flex lanes run eastbound from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and westbound from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., governed by overhead digital gantries that show green arrows when the shoulder is open and red X's when it isn't, according to ClickOnDetroit.
Michigan installed the flex route design over three years at a cost of about $250 million, per the state's own accounting relayed by MLive, and the project also included a temporary additional lane and traffic signals on highway entrance ramps during construction. State officials describe flex routes generally as costing a fraction of what it takes to build permanent new lanes and shoulders, since the existing shoulder pavement is simply reinforced and reused rather than replaced with new construction.
A 24/7 Watch From the Operations Center
None of it runs on autopilot. The system is monitored around the clock by joint dispatchers from MDOT and the Michigan State Police working out of regional transportation operations centers, per ClickOnDetroit. At the Southeast Michigan Transportation Operations Center, staff use camera systems to open or close the shoulder lane and to activate ramp meters on eight entrance ramps, including at Wixom and Milford roads, which briefly turn red at times to delay highway access and break up stop-and-go merging, MLive reports.
Nathan Ross, who works at the operations center, told MLive that directly managing traffic flow helps reduce delays, smooth out bottlenecks and keep vehicles moving more predictably. The center also responds quickly to crashes or congestion as conditions evolve throughout the day, according to the outlet. The corridor's redesign included seven dedicated crash investigation sites built along the outside shoulders, allowing police and emergency responders to clear incidents without blocking travel lanes, according to HNTB, the engineering firm that worked on the project.
Built on Michigan's First Flex Route Experiment
The I-96 Flex Route, which opened in March 2025, is Michigan's second flex route and follows the state's original pilot on US-23 in Washtenaw and Livingston counties, which opened eight years earlier in December 2017. That earlier project delivered a 17% overall reduction in crashes and a 45% improvement in southbound morning peak-hour travel times, according to the National Operations Center of Excellence, results that helped justify expanding the concept to Oakland County.
The $250 million-plus I-96 project was funded through Governor Gretchen Whitmer's $3.5 billion Rebuilding Michigan bond program, a state initiative launched in 2020 to rebuild high-volume interstates and bridges without raising taxes, according to the State of Michigan. State economic modeling projected that the three-year construction effort directly and indirectly supported roughly 3,400 to 3,500 jobs across Metro Detroit.
Michigan Won Twice in the Same Competition
Michigan actually picked up two of the 12 regional awards presented across the 10-state Mid-America region this year. MDOT's $35 million Fruit Ridge Avenue bridge replacement over I-96 in Walker, Kent County, also won top regional honors in the Quality of Life/Community Development category, according to the State of Michigan.
For the I-96 Flex Route, the path forward now runs through a national competition, where a panel of transportation industry judges will select one award winner and the public will choose another through an online vote, per MLive. Two national awards will be handed out in Louisville this November, with each winning project receiving $10,000 to donate to a scholarship fund or charitable cause of its choice, according to the association.
What's Next for Michigan's Smart Highways
The flex route push is part of a broader shift by MDOT toward what engineers call active traffic management: using sensors, signals and dynamic signage to squeeze more capacity and safety out of existing pavement rather than pouring concrete for new lanes. That philosophy creates a safer environment for first responders through controlled lane closures and clearer guidance to drivers, and it allows real-time adjustments during both planned construction and unplanned closures.
MDOT is already building on the concept. The agency received Federal Highway Administration approval in 2026 to develop a 39-mile Connected and Automated Vehicle express lane corridor along I-94 between Ann Arbor and Detroit, continuing the state's move toward tech-integrated highways that add capacity without adding permanent lanes. Michigan drivers in Metro Detroit have grown familiar with major freeway overhauls in recent years, including a sinkhole that crippled I-96 at the Southfield Freeway and ongoing ramp reconstruction tied to the I-696 corridor.
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