SANDUSKY, MI — The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) recently joined the City of Sandusky in celebrating the reopening of M-46 and M-19. The city hosted a ribbon cutting event at the M-46/M-19 intersection to celebrate the recent reopening of these two roadways, which support commercial, commuter, and tourism traffic.

"It's huge for our community," Sandusky City Manager David Faber said. "It's a reinvestment in our downtown. These roads have been here for a long time, and they needed to be redone. We hope this project is a catalyst for our downtown, our redevelopment, and bringing everyone to Sandusky."

This $26.4 million investment included rebuilding M-46 in the city of Sandusky, replacing storm sewer, upgrading traffic signals, replacing curbs, upgrading sidewalks, and safety improvements, as well as improving M-19 in the city of Sandusky. Based on economic modeling, this investment directly and indirectly supports 375 jobs, and it was coordinated with the City of Sandusky's watermain improvements project.

"I know it was a lot for the community to handle during construction, it was pretty impactful to their main routes through town," MDOT Transportation Engineer John DeLang said. "But now that it's complete, we're hoping that it'll last a long time before we have to come back and touch it. Everyone we've talked to has been pretty happy with how it turned out, and they're excited to see the new road going into Sandusky."

Next year, work will begin on resurfacing M-46 from the Sandusky east city limit to the Carsonville west village limit. That work is expected to be completed by November 2025.