Two things you can say about spring – April showers bring May flowers and government dollars bring roadwork.

Motorists start planning ahead when it comes to daily commutes, errands and social activities because portions of Lakeville, Baldwin and Oakwood roads are set to be resurfaced by the Road Commission for Oakland County (RCOC) as part of more than $66 million worth of improvements this year.

RCOC Spokesman Craig Bryson said it’s anticipated the local work should begin “sometime in May.”

The resurfacing project, estimated to cost a total of $3.7 million, will include:

• Lakeville Rd. – Approximately 6 miles from Rochester Rd. in Addison Township to just east of Glaspie St. in Oxford Village. Estimated cost: $1.3 million. Included in this project is the 4,200 feet (0.8 mile) of Lakeville Rd. for which the village, not the county, is responsible. In December, village officials agreed to pay $165,000 to resurface their portion of the road.

• Oakwood Rd. – Approximately 6 miles from Leece Rd. in Brandon Township to M-24 in Oxford Township. Estimated cost: $1.52 million.

• Baldwin Rd. – Approximately 3 miles from the southern leg of Seymour Lake Rd. to Oakwood Rd. Estimated cost: $890,000.

A single contractor will be doing all three jobs, Bryson said.

Funding for this project is coming from federal aid money the RCOC purchased for 75 cents on the dollar from two other counties in the Upper Peninsula.

All three road surfaces will be milled in areas where needed, then topped with 2 inches of new asphalt.

“At this point, we’re thinking they all should be done in roughly six to eight weeks,” Bryson said. “We’ll nail that down more specifically once we’ve got a contractor and we sit down with them. But right now, if we start in May, we’ll be done by mid-July.”

This type of project, called a preservation overlay, will extend the life of the road by “up to five to 10 years,” according to Bryson. These overlays will be performed on close to 37 miles of roads throughout Oakland County this year.

“These are fairly simple jobs,” Bryson said. “They’re really pretty non-disruptive. They come in one day and typically mill whatever they need to mill. They come in another day and put down the new pavement. The last part is re-striping. It’s really pretty quick.”

In the midst of all this roadwork, two major events are coming to Oxford on the weekend of June 3-4.

Seymour Lake Township Park (2795 W. Seymour Lake Rd., just east of Baldwin Rd.) will host a giant lacrosse tournament, the 2017 Midwest Lax Bash, from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. both days. A total of 4,000 participants are expected both days.

Koenig Sand & Gravel, a 1,200-acre mining property, located at 1955 E. Lakeville Rd., will host a Tough Mudder event from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday (7,500 people expected) and from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday (1,500 people expected). Tough Mudder is a popular team-based obstacle course challenge.

“I talked to our engineers who are designing the projects and they are aware of the two events,” Bryson said. “I would imagine the contractor can work around those.”

Preservation overlays are “relatively simple projects,” he explained, so contractors are not going to be “as locked into schedules” as they would be with “a more complex project.”

“Because the same contractor is doing all three (jobs), they can move around,” Bryson noted. “They might be able to go work on Baldwin, while one of the events is (happening) on Lakeville Rd.”