Traverse City road work will shift lanes for two weeks

Soils & Structures began geotechnical coring and drilling on Traverse City streets July 13, and the mobile work is shifting lanes through Wednesday, July 22 while the city gathers data for future road projects. The city says no street closures are planned, a detail that should keep downtown access more manageable even as drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians face slower travel.

The work is a standard first step before bigger street investments move ahead. Geotechnical coring shows what lies beneath the pavement, helping engineers judge whether soil can support reconstruction and what materials or design changes may be needed. In Traverse City, that kind of testing can shape the next round of capital work long before a resurfacing or rebuild reaches a construction schedule.

City planning documents show how the decision-making pipeline works. The 2026 Pavement Preservation & Reconstruction Projects page says the Department of Public Services’ Streets and Asset Management Divisions, along with the Department of Municipal Utilities, review streets each year based on pavement condition, utility replacement needs and other factors. The city’s Capital Improvements Plan is updated annually, and its first year becomes the basis for the Capital Projects Budget. Together, those steps turn this week’s drilling into part of a larger investment process that affects which streets get rebuilt and when.

Traverse City used the same kind of preconstruction work before. In September 2024, the city hired Intertek PSI for geotechnical coring and drilling on residential streets, with lane shifts and no street closures. That notice also said sidewalks stayed open during the mobile work, underscoring how the city tries to keep traffic moving while field crews collect subsurface information.

One of the bigger projects already on the city’s map is Monroe Street Reconstruction, which is scheduled for April 2026 through November 2026. The project will rebuild Monroe Street from Front Street to Bay Street and is listed in the city’s Capital Improvement Plan. That puts the July drilling in the shadow of a much larger construction calendar that could eventually affect access, parking and business traffic along one of Traverse City’s key corridors.

Soils & Structures, which says it has been helping with difficult sites since 1974, lists a Traverse City office at 1411 Trade Centre Dr., Traverse City, MI 49696. Its local presence has made it a recurring part of the city’s preconstruction work as Traverse City moves from testing pavement conditions to planning the next round of street investment.