Expect road construction in Michigan this Labor Day weekend

Driving across the state could get messy this holiday weekend.

The intrigue: Higher-than-normal traffic volumes are expected leading up to Labor Day this year, according to INRIX, a transportation data and insights company that works with AAA to find best/worst car travel times.

• The times with the least traffic this week will be on Sunday — when minimal traffic is expected overall, per INRIX.

Zoom in: Traffic volumes are expected to increase from Detroit to Grand Rapids via I-96 West Saturday morning by 35%, adding nearly 40 minutes to the route, AAA of Michigan reports.

• MDOT typically gets as many projects off the road as possible by Labor Day to try and ease up roadways for drivers, but says this year might look different because of the number of projects.

What they're saying: "Work zones are still there for our big jobs like 96 and 696 and 275 — they all still have to be torn up because the roads are already torn up," MDOT spokesperson Diane Cross tells Axios.

• "We needed to fix the damn roads so, yes, there is more construction going on than normal and there probably will be for the next year or two. But by then we will rebuild almost everything in Metro Detroit except for the Lodge and 94 in Detroit."