Are you dreaming of living the perfect life in the perfect community and driving on perfect roads?
You actually might be able to have the perfect life in the perfect community, but the chances of you having perfect roads in Oakland County are zero.
Last spring, officials of the Road Commission for Oakland County completed a round of meetings with villages, townships and cities in the county.
They wanted to hear about “the state of roads” throughout the county. That doesn’t mean RCOC is going to do much about the roads, but at least they’ll know where the problems exist.
It’s estimated it would cost more than $1.8 billion to take care of county communities’ projected needs in the next 10 years. This is a huge amount of money, but the main concern is there just isn’t enough available money to solve road problems.
RCOC is telling us traffic congestion will only get worse for the rest of the decade.
Here’s a list of Orion Township officials’ long-range transportation improvement priorities.
• Reconfigure the intersection and signalization at M-24/Indianwood Road.
• Construct a right-turn lane at Clarkston Road/M-24. Construct right-turn lanes on Joslyn Road/Clarkston Road.
• Signalize M-24 at Stadium Drive. Signalize M-24 at Waldon Road.
• Construct turn lanes and signalize with green turn arrows at Joslyn/Waldon.
• Construct turn lanes and signalize with green turn arrows at Baldwin/Waldon.
• Construct turn lanes and signalize with green turn arrows at Maybee/Baldwin.
• Construct right-turn lane on East Scripps at M-24.
• Pave shoulder of Joslyn Road at Marina Pointe subdivision north of Heights Road.
• Add deceleration lane on the north side of Brown Road as development takes place.
• Improve drainage where needed throughout the township.
• Improve snow/ice removal in subdivisions.
• Improve intersection of Clarkston Road and Sunset Hills Drive. Pave North Conklin Road Indian Lake Road.
• Pave Waldon Road west of Baldwin to the township line.
• Pave Maybee Road west of Baldwin to the township line.
• Relocate Joslyn Road north of Judah Road at the railroad tracks.
• Replace Stanton Road Bridge at Newman.
• Improve intersections and signalize where necessary on Baldwin, Joslyn and M-24, as priorities, and then throughout the township.
• Improve Brown Road to a five lane road.
• Extend Dutton Road west to M-24. Add right-turn lanes at the Baldwin/Clarkston Road intersection.
Two items on the list have actually been done that I know of — improvements at Indianwood/M-24 and traffic light at Stadium Drive.
Do you agree with this wish list? Do you think other improvements in the township are more important? If you do, send me a list.