Contractors for the Michigan Department of Transportation shut down High Street between Mission and Washington streets about noon Tuesday, in preparation for a resurfacing project.
MDOT says the half-mile-long stretch of one of Mt. Pleasant's main east-west roads will be closed for about two days while contractors put a new layer of asphalt on the pavement.
Traffic is being detoured along Bradley, Pickard and Mission streets, but the closure of High Street also is disrupting north-south traffic on the side streets between downtown Mt. Pleasant and the Central Michigan University campus.
Further complicating issues: Broadway Street through downtown Mt. Pleasant, which some drivers might have chosen as a closer east-west alternate route, is closed between Lansing and Court streets as part of the project to reconstruct that main street.
MDOT says that construction crews will grind off the pavement markings, then put down what it calls a "microsurface," or a thin layer of asphalt. The work is expected to extend the life of the pavement by at least five years.