By Jim Newell

Review Editor

The Village of Lake Orion is looking to fix the darn roads.

The Lake Orion Village Council unanimously approved a contract not to exceed $2,700 with Nowak and Fraus Engineers to conduct a PASER assessment of the condition of village streets.

The Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating (PASER) plan needs to be updated from 2019 to determine the priority of street repairs in the upcoming years, said village council President Ken Van Portfliet.

There are 11.6 miles of village-owned roads. Orion Township, which does not own any roads, has the Road Commission for Oakland County maintain township roads. The village must maintain its own roads through its own funds, or funds supplied through the federal and state governments.

The PASER rating system categorizes conditions of roads on a 1-10 scale system, with 10 being excellent condition. The ratings are used to develop the list of proposed improvements and to prioritize those improvements.

“It is important for the sake of consistency and equivalent comparison of the deterioration of the roadway system to perform this evaluation on all of the streets at one time, approximately once every two years,” said Carol P. Thurber, principal at Nowak & Fraus Engineers, in a letter to village Manage Joe Young. “The PASER is an industry standard and is a requirement for all roads that may receive any federal funding, including Act 51 funding.”

Nowak & Fraus has experience performing PASER assessments for many communities.

The assessment should take 1-2 days of field time, plus 1-2 days of office time.

“The collected data will be provided in a report and will include a trending analysis as well as discussion of recommended repair methodology for the various roadway ratings,” Thurber said.

“Council is fully aware and we discuss often and you’re going to hear more about what we consider the issues of infrastructure ahead of us. The PASER report is one of those and getting that batting order of worst to best,” said council President Pro-Tem Jerry Narsh. “Included in that we’re going to start a sidewalk analysis program to determine our sidewalk safety.”