Sometime between 2008 and 2011, the roughly half-mile gravel section of Ray Road between M-24 and Oxford Road will be paved and it’s only going to cost the township just under $45,000.
‘Ray Road is the number one transportation-related priority for the township,? said Tom Noechel, programming supervisor with the Road Commission for Oakland County.
Township officials last week voted 6-0 to ‘reserve? $44,799 for design and construction of a paved Ray Road using the county’s popular Tri-Party program.
Under the Tri-Party program, road improvement projects are financed jointly with township, county and road commission each paying a third.
According to the numbers Noechel presented the township board, it will cost $56,000 to design and engineer the paving of Ray Road and an estimated $784,000 for the actual construction.
Federal funds will pay for 80 percent of the construction phase (or $627,200 based on current estimates). The remainder would be financed in the following manner ? $104,534 from the road commission and $26,133 each from the township and county..
‘The road commission is looking for the next gravel road to pave using federal funds,? Noechel explained.
Exactly when these federal funds will come this way is not certain.
?2010-11 is when we are counting on the federal money being available for this,? Noechel told this reporter in a later interview. But it could happen sooner.
‘Federal money does become available (at different times throughout the year) and if it does and if this job is designed, we would take advantage of those federal dollars and build this hopefully earlier,? Noechel said. ‘Maybe 2008 or 2009. We’ll see.?
That’s why Noechel urged officials to get the design and engineering work done as soon as possible. ‘The job would be essentially ready to go,? he told the board.
Using the Tri-Party program, the design and engineering would cost the township $18,666. The road commission and county would each pay $18,667.
This is a far cry from the original $98,000 cost bandied about in spring 2005 to have a private firm do the design work. Back then, township officials decided the cost was too high and put their Tri-Party money toward a different project.
Noechel explained that at that time the road commission didn’t have the capacity to do the design work internally. Now it does. ‘We don’t work with a profit margin so obviously our estimate’s going to be cheaper to design it in-house,? he told officials.
‘This is one of those things (where) it actually paid to wait,? noted Treasurer Joe Ferrari.