CASS COUNTY — Summertime in southwest Michigan means a lot of things. It means spending time at the beach and on the lakes; it means long, hot days and it means that there will be a steady amount of road delays and closures due to construction.

Cass County got its first major taste of roadway construction early last month when the Michigan Department of Transportation began a month and a half long project to repave the 9.5 -mile stretch of M-62 that connects Cassopolis and Edwardsburg. This $1.4 million investment into the roadway includes curb ramp construction.

The official start date for the project was Tuesday, April 10, and construction is expected to be completed Friday, May 18, assuming the contractor responsible for repaving the roadway does not need an extension.

“The contractor has not asked for an extension yet,” said Nick Schirripa, from the MDOT Office of Communications. “Obviously, it’s been delayed a little bit because of weather. It happens, but our contractors are usually really good about meeting the deadlines in contracts. On occasion, they will ask for extensions if they are delayed for something like weather and they lose more than a few days. They can make up a few days relatively easy, so we have not heard anything yet from the contractor. We assume they are sticking to that contract date.”

Commuters are still able to use the road, as only a portion of it will be repaved at once.

“It’s what we call a mill and fill,” Schirripa said. “Essentially, what the contractor will do is go and mill off a half inch, an inch or an inch and a half off of the existing surface and then go back behind that and put a new layer of asphalt over the top. They’ll do that in segments, whether it’s a quarter-mile, half-mile or a mile. They’re manageable chunks that they can usually do in a day or two.”

This means that people who travel that stretch of M-62 only encounter the burden of constructions for a short period of time.  When they do hit construction, drivers are greeted by a traffic regulator with double sided sign that reads “slow” and “stop.”

It is the regulator’s job to safely direct traffic around the road crew to keep everyone safe. According to Schirripa, it should not take vehicles more than a couple of minutes to move passed the construction.

While the construction still may seem inconvenient to drivers, Schirripa says that it is good to perform upkeep on the road while it is still in good condition.

“There are a couple of different types of projects we do,” he said. “This is essentially a resurfacing project, which is relatively smaller in comparison, both in price tag and in scope to bigger reconstruction projects, where we’re removing the entire road and we’re rebuilding quite literally from the gravel up. Anytime we can extend the life of the road by improving or redoing the surface, especially, if it’s a road that’s in good condition.”

If MDOT has to do a total reconstruction of a road, it could be much more costly and inconvenient to the community.

“I think this will accomplish a couple of things, all to the benefit of taxpayers,” he said. “If we have to [completely] reconstruct a road, that is a bit larger in scope, so we’re talking total road closures, detours and longer than a month, month and a half project. The longer we can keep good roads, in good conditions and put off those larger projects, the better it is for everybody.”