Three heavily-travelled roads that run through Oxford, Addison and Brandon townships will each get a fresh coat of asphalt next year.

Portions of Lakeville, Baldwin and Oakwood roads will be resurfaced by the Road Commission for Oakland County (RCOC).

“The plan now is to go out for bid in April on these, which would mean a May start,” said RCOC Spokesman Craig Bryson. “We’re bidding them all as one project.”

According to Bryson, the project will include:

• Lakeville Rd. – Approximately 6 miles from Rochester Rd. in Addison Township to just east of Glaspie St. in Oxford Village. Estimated cost: $1.6 million. (See related story below).
• Oakwood Rd. – Approximately 6 miles from Leece Rd. in Brandon Township to M-24 in Oxford Township. Estimated cost: $2 million.
• Baldwin Rd. – Approximately 3 miles from the southern leg of Seymour Lake Rd. to Oakwood Rd. Estimated cost: $750,000.

All three road surfaces will receive milling where needed, then get topped with 2 inches of new asphalt.

The work isn’t expected to take very long.

“If it takes two months to do all of them, I’d be surprised,” Bryson said.

Bryson explained these stretches of road are all in “relatively decent shape,” but they’re “at the point where if we don’t do something, (they’re) going to deteriorate in the next couple of years.”

Adding 2 inches of asphalt will “extend the life of the road by about 10 years.”

“It’s a good bang for the buck,” Bryson said. “You can’t do it on roads that are in terrible shape. They have to be in good enough condition to be able to hold the additional pavement.”

Money for the project is coming from federal aid dollars that the RCOC purchased from two other counties.

“It’s kind of an interesting situation,” Bryson said.

According to him, “the state is experimenting with a new program” through which smaller, more rural road commissions can sell their federal aid dollars to counties willing to buy them.

He explained smaller road commissions often have “difficulty” using federal money because of all the “red tape” associated with it. They frequently don’t have the staffing levels to adequately handle it.

A larger entity like the RCOC has both the manpower and experience.

“We do federal aid projects a lot more than they do,” Bryson said. “It’s less onerous for us. We’re used to doing it.”

The RCOC purchased some federal funding from two counties in the Upper Peninsula and will be using the money on these local roads.

“We paid 75 cents on the dollar to get their federal aid,” Bryson said.

He said it works out for both parties – Oakland County gets a “great deal,” while the rural counties get money to use that’s free of restrictions and red tape.