The Michigan Department of Transportation is planning to reconstruct a heavily traveled portion of M-139 in Benton Harbor and Benton Township starting next year.
MDOT’s Nick Schirripa tells us the work will affect the area of Fairplain Plaza going north into Benton Harbor.
“We will be rebuilding and resurfacing about four and a half miles of M-139 from Fairplain Drive, or right around Fairplain, up to the I-94 BL or Main Street in Benton Harbor,” Schirripa said. “In 2026, we’ll be doing the segment from Pipestone Road, North to Main street. In 2027, we will be rebuilding from Fairplain to Pipestone and then doing some driveway and drainage work south of Fairplain.”
One feature of this project is that it will result in changes to the flow of traffic on part of M-139 north of Pipestone. Schirripa says M-139 will become a two-way road from Empire Avenue up along what is now Martin Luther King Drive to East Main Street, and Fair Avenue also will be made two-way. That will require a reconfiguration of how they connect at the southern point. He says as MDOT planned this $31 million project, it saw the opportunity to update how the traffic flows in that area.
Schirripa’s not expecting a full closure of M-139 in the busy corridor south of Napier during the work, which will likely begin next spring and continue for two full construction seasons.
Schirripa says in 2029, MDOT will be back to resurface M-139 from Fairplain Drive south toward I-94.
