Around $17.8 million in federal funding will be split among various Oakland County road improvement projects in Fiscal Year 2022.
The Oakland County Federal Aid Committee allocates federal road dollars three years before a project’s start year. During the committee’s call for projects, a total of 24 applications were submitted for review by 11 communities totaling $23.76 million.
Each year, 69 percent of the federal road funding goes towards county road improvement projects while the remaining 31 percent is allocated for city and village projects. The road commission uses about $2 million of its federal allocation each year for paving gravel roads.
On Tuesday, the committee will select which local, city and village, road improvement projects will receive federal funding. The total target amount available for cities and villages is $5,519,922.
In October, the committee selected six Road Commission for Oakland County projects to receive a total of $8,360,000 in federal funding.
In order to receive money, through the federal government’s surface transportation program, the community requesting funding must provide a local match of 20 percent of the project’s cost. Projects are selected based on an objective point system, which takes into account safety considerations, traffic volumes, cost and other factors.
The road commission project that received the highest number of points, and ultimately selected as one of the six, was 14 Mile Road from Stephenson to Edward in Troy. It scored the maximum 100 points.
The local project that received the highest number of points, and has a good chance of being selected Tuesday, was Walton Road from Pontiac’s western city limit to Baldwin Road. The committee gave it a score of 67 out of 100.
The committee is made up of representatives of the Road Commission for Oakland County, the Michigan Department of Transportation, SMART (the suburban bus system) and all communities in the county. In addition, the improvement project must be taking place on a federal-aid-eligible road to receive federal dollars.
A complete list of the Fiscal Year 2022 projects submitted can be found by visiting: https://www.rcocweb.org/DocumentCenter/View/6054/Agenda-2-12-2019.
Last year, the committee selected nine county road improvement projects to receive federal aid in Fiscal Year 2021. An improvement project must be taking place on a federal-aid-eligible road to receive federal dollars.
Read the full story at: https://www.theoaklandpress.com/news/local/milion-in-federal-road-dollars-coming-oakland-county-s-way/article_d677abc6-2e26-11e9-ba64-2be7ea0c48a1.html