MDOT Spending $2.3 Million To Cover Dead-Looking Areas Along I-696 With Mulch
WARREN (WWJ/AP) - The Michigan Department of Transportation is paying $2.3 million to cover up dead-looking areas of vegetation along a Detroit-area freeway with mulch.
That's the cost to have 53,700 cubic yards of mulch placed in along I-696 in parts of Oakland and Macomb counties, an area that stretches roughly from I-75 to I-94, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press.
"We are remulching all of the beds (basically anywhere where there isn't growth) with mulch," MDOT spokeswoman Diane Cross said in an email. Crews have been using blower tubes to spray brown shredded bark mulch on the sloping hillsides.
The work comes ahead of a $620,000 replanting effort that's scheduled to start in October, the newspaper reported. The apparent die-off of large stretches of the landscaping was evident this summer, less than two years after the completion of a $9.5 million landscaping project.
MDOT said money normally spent on mowing and maintaining the area was instead spent on weeding, pretreating for weeds, mulch and litter pickup. The agency also said some original plantings did well and that the project accomplished its goals.
The major landscaping subcontractor on the original I-696 Slope Restoration Project, W.H. Canon, is the prime contractor on the new projects. The company had maintenance responsibility for the original project before its completion, but MDOT has been responsible since 2013.
W.H. Canon CEO Patti Canon said details about the original project date to the period before she assumed her current role with the company.
About 71,600 plants, shrubs and trees were installed on both sides of the roughly 10-mile corridor for the original project. Extreme weather in recent years and the effects of road salt were some of the possible explanations for damage, officials and experts said.
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