Chlesea Bossert/Daily Mining Gazette The temporary traffic signal at the one-lane portion of M-26 facing southbound.

RIPLEY — The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) announced Monday a majority of lane restrictions on road improvement projects will be lifted by 2 p.m. Thursday for the upcoming Fourth of July weekend.

MDOT Superior Region Manager Dan Weingarten said 12 out of 20 U.P. road projects will have restrictions lifted. “More than half of those will be lifted in the U.P.,” he said.

In Houghton and Keweenaw counties, many of the lane restrictions will be lifted as of 3 p.m. Thursday. Houghton County Road Commission Engineer Kevin Harju said the one-lane restriction and temporary traffic signal in Ripley on M-26 will still be up over the holiday weekend.

“The Ripley project will be one-lane signaled, through the Fourth of July,” Harju said. “All the rest of our roads projects will be open to thru traffic, Thursday at 3 p.m.”

According to Weingarten, one of the bigger projects impacting travel in the Western U.P. is M-28 west of US-141 near Covington. The lane restrictions will be open on the major U.P. state trunkline, giving drivers an option to traverse through southern Houghton County.

“The large project that impacts travel in the Western U.P. is our project between Covington and Trout Creek on M28, where we’re doing a bunch of culvert replacements and we will be later in the summer resurfacing that,” he said. “Those lane restrictions will be removed during the Fourth of July weekend.”

Whitmer and MDOT said 106 out of 179 MDOT projects will have restrictions lifted to accommodate the 2.6 million Michiganders traveling at least 50 miles or more from home this Fourth of July weekend.

Weingarten said MDOT has no current projects on the Mackinac Bridge, but I-75 north of St. Ignace heading into Chippewa county is still undergoing road improvements.

“We have one lane open in each direction with a traffic shift at the Cheeseman Road overpass,” he said. “It’s the second year of a project where we’re completely replacing those overpasses on I-75.”

Keweenaw County Road Commission announced Eagle Harbor Shortcut Road will be closed July 6-9, after the holiday weekend. According to a release sent out last Monday, a culvert replacement at Jacob’s Creek Crossing will be worked on. Drivers are expected to reroute to M-26 heading north.

No other announcements have been made by Houghton or Keweenaw County Road Commissions at press time.