Heavily used, weathered roads to get maintenance
12/6/2006Bedford Township's roads are suffering under the burden of the township's continued growth.
"All the new subdivisions in the area are busting up the roads faster than we can put them up," said Monroe County Commissioner James Goebel, of Temperance.
The Monroe County Road Commission has proposed a little respite for these roads that are a bit more traveled than in years past.
Ralph Lange, managing director of the county road commission, said despite the increased traffic, the Midwest winters still cause the heaviest toll.
He said in spring, summer, and fall of 2007, some of the most-desperate Bedford roads will undergo "reconditioning, milling and filling, and overlay."
Summerfield Road, from Douglas Road to Smith Road, will be reconditioned and widened, and new drainage will be added for a total cost of about $813,000.
About 2 1/2 miles of Lewis Ave and 1.8 miles of Sterns Road will undergo "mill and fill" asphalt work to repair potholes and cracks and level the roads out.
The Sterns Road work, from Telegraph Road to Lewis Avenue, will cost about $500,000, and the repairs on Lewis Avenue, from just south of the Ann Arbor Railroad tracks to just north of Sterns Road, will cost about $1.2 million.
And about $340,000 will be needed to add two inches of asphalt and new shoulders to the two-mile stretch of Douglas Road, from Sterns Road to Temperance Road.
"The roads all over Monroe County are in desperate need of maintenance and improvement, and we try to get as much money together as possible to cover these repairs but we can't do all the projects necessary," said Mr. Lange.
Nancy Tienvieri, an executive assistant for the road commission who is helping to plan the Bedford repairs, said these particular roads have been earmarked for 2007 because "they are heavily traveled roads that township officials have specifically highlighted."
Federal, state, county, township, and grant monies will be used for these projects.
In terms of local money, about 50 percent would come from the county, 25 percent from the road commission, and 25 percent from the Bedford Township.