Dequindre Road work coming at end of April
$2.3M in upgrades to help development at former Hazel Park Raceway
The Michigan Department of Transportation is helping fund improvements along Dequindre Road near the former Hazel Park Raceway to support traffic for industrial development there.
MDOT is putting up $1.4 million and light industrial warehouse builder and operator Ashley Capital is funding about $939,000 for the $2.3 million road project.
Ashley Capital is in the process of building its third Tri-County Commerce Center building on the former harness raceway property in Hazel Park, which closed nearly three years ago.
The new building will cover
about 900,000 square feet when completed, making it the largest building in the development and the city.
A key tenant in one of Ashley Capital’s buildings is Avancez LLC, which makes and supplies automotive modules for General Motors and is expanding. The parts will be used at GM’s upcoming Factory ZERO complex at the site of its former Detroit/Hamtramck plant to make vehicles that create no emissions.
The Avancez expansion is expected to bring 241 jobs.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced the road project Thursday.
“Every Michigander deserves to drive on our roads safely, without blowing a tire or cracking a windshield,” Whitmer said in a statement. “This partnership with Avancez and
Ashley Capital moves us toward that goal while creating good jobs for Michigan workers. I am pleased that we were able to collaborate with these companies and Macomb and Oakland counties to fix these roads.”
About a half-mile stretch of Dequindre between 10 Mile Road and Woodward Heights will be improved.
Construction is set to begin at the end of April. Since Macomb County controls Dequindre in that area the work will be done by the Macomb County Road Commission, said Brian Armstrong, an MDOT spokesman.
“They are trying to get this work done by July,” he said. “
Dequindre Road in the area serves as a border between Hazel Park and Warren. A light industrial development project is also underway in Warren on the east side of Dequindre, according to Jeffrey Campbell, director of
planning and development for Hazel Park.
Armstrong said workers will be milling and resurfacing Dequindre with asphalt, and make repairs to the base of the roadway where needed.
The work also includes widening the road to accommodate more commercial truck traffic, new traffic signals and a continuous left turn lane from Woodward Heights to 10 Mile Road.
“We hope the improvements will help alleviate any traffic congestion in that area of Dequindre,” said City Manager Ed Klobucher.
Ashley Capital has spent more than $80 million on development at the former Hazel Park Raceway and attracted a number of top companies to its buildings, including Amazon.
Once the company’s third building is completed this year, the TriCounty Commerce Center will have 2.1 million square feet of space.