Big Changes Planned at Columbia Interchange

How many times have you been caught in a traffic jam trying to go north from the Columbia Road-Detroit Road intersection, either to get to Interstate 90 or points north?

A $7 million project is in the design stages that will address the problems in that area, said city engineer Bob Kelly.

is waiting on federal funding before beginning the project, Kelly said.

The placement of the on- and off-ramps for I-90 create problems, Kelly said. The ramps on 90 east are too close to Detroit Road and traffic can end up jammed to the Columbia-Detroit intersection.

Also, the 90 west off-ramp for Columbia Road northbound ends at Columbia Road just a few hundred feet from the Sperry Road intersection with Columbia Road.

Plans are to get rid of the Columbia Road northbound off-ramp on 90 west. All exiting traffic would have a cloverleaf off-ramp that ends on the west side of Columbia Road directly across from Sperry Road, with a traffic light.

The cloverleaf on-ramp to 90 east for southbound traffic on Columbia Road would be gone. The on- and off-ramps for 90 east would be moved closer to the highway, and a traffic light would be installed.

Pushing that interchange and traffic lights a bit further north should help alleviate traffic back-ups into the Detroit-Columbia intersection, Kelly said.

Want to see what the changes would look like? Check out the attached photo of a visual of the plans.

Columbia Road would be reconfigured north of Detroit Road to accomodate the traffic flow changes.