Project to be completed in phases
By Joseph Goral
jgoral@mihomepaper.com
Oxford — Oxford Village Manager Joe Madore provided an update to the village’s Oxford Lake Drive paving project during the village council’s meeting on June 10.
The village began discussing the project during previous budget workshops, and initially thought the project would be “relatively inexpensive” and involve a 2-inch mill of the existing surface and refill on the road, but Madore said “the exact opposite has worked out.”
Construction means paving in front of accessible ramps at the curb is necessary. Madore discovered any of these ramps in the project’s scope will need to be replaced due to them not meeting current standards.
Results of core samples taken of the current pavement and subsurface show none of the asphalt on Oxford Lakes Drive is thick enough for a simple mill and fill project, according to village documents. Instead, the project will require the paving surface to be crushed and reshaped to have a proper base for the new asphalt surface.
These new requirements mean the project’s cost is now increased, leading to Madore suggesting to complete the project in three phases. The first phase is estimated to cost $300,000, and will include repaving the intersection of Leight Lane and Woodleigh Way, around 100 feet of surface at 718 Woodleigh Way, and from 314 Oxford Lakes Drive to around 245 Oxford Lakes Drive The village has $325,000 budgeted in the 2025-26 fiscal year budget.
A benefit to completing the project in phases is that there will be less significant disruptions to traffic routes even though three phases means three disruptions compared to one, according to Madore.
Phase one will be completed this year, he said. He added the village does not plan on doing any water main projects for a few years.
“We could focus more specifically just on another section of this next year perhaps, without all the water (and) local street paving that we’re having to do,” Madore said.
Bids for the new scope of work were published on June 9, and are due June 30. Bids will be considered during the village council’s next meeting at 7 p.m. on July 8.