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Lack of Revenue Delays Road Projects
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Mr. Shumejko said the article included in the packet was from an issue of the Oakland Press that came out in early February. It dealt with how the lack of funding has caused the postponement of many of the road projects in the area, including the M-59/Crooks interchange. That project has been in MDOT’s five-year transportation plan for funding, been out of the plan, then back in, and now technically it is out of the five-year plan. It was one of the projects that MDOT was moving along with the design on in hopes there would be a second round of “stimulus money” this year. The U.S. House passed a version that would have funded it, but the Senate approved an alternate bill which didn’t include any stimulus money for road funding. As a result this project is currently unfunded. Another project that lost funding is the downtown renovation project of Main Street in Rochester. MDOT had also planned to add a center left turn lane to widen Auburn Road, which was to be done in 2014, but that has also been removed from the five-year plan. However they are still going to do an overlay on Auburn later this year. Mr. Shumejko explained those were the three local projects that would be affected. Chairperson Colling added that he assumed this would be subject to further changes by the Feds.
Mr. Hunter asked whether the intersection at Auburn and Dequindre would be included with the work on Auburn. Mr. Shumejko responded that it was basically a resurfacing project so they will overlay it, but since they will not remove pavement and will just cap what is there he was not sure how long it would last. Chairperson Colling asked when the overlay would occur, and Mr. Shumejko replied in late summer or early fall, September or October of 2010. As part of the resurfacing project MDOT is going to upgrade the existing pathway ramps for ADA compliance so they will have the proper slopes and detectable warning plates.
Vice Chairperson Moore said CNN reported that not even half of the stimulus money had been cut or even applied for. With all the needs the City has, he wondered if they had been going through the proper channels to get some of this money. Mr. Shumejko responded that when the original stimulus money came out, half of the money had to be obligated within 120 days of its approval, so half of the money was obligated last year. However obligation does not mean that construction actually started. Many of the projects got funded late in the year, so the projects will not begin until the spring construction season. Another factor is that in order to get approved the project had to be “shovel-ready,” so these were mostly resurfacing jobs. The projects that needed design work weren’t able to utilize these funds. There is a separate local bridge program that funds bridge replacements, and he didn’t think that they utilized any of the stimulus money. Oakland County’s share of the money was directed to the Oakland Federal Aid Committee, who divided the money up. It was essentially for roads and not bridges.
Mr. Webber said that his understanding of the stimulus money was that 75% of the road money went to MDOT for state projects. One of those in our area is the widening of M-59. The other 25% went through a process where communities submitted proposals. Some cities had submitted dozens of projects for funding, and he wasn’t sure if those funding decisions had been made. When Mayor Barnett was on his recent trip to Washington D.C. he talked with Congressman Peters about the potential for getting earmarked funds, like Congressman Knollenberg got for the Tienken Road Bridge back in 2004 or 2005. The thought process is that with the State and Federal people working on it we could try to get some government money to expedite the Avon Bridge job.
Mr. Shumejko explained that when the stimulus money was first announced it wasn’t clear what direction it would take. A lot of communities, including the City, submitted a long “laundry list” of projects that if we had a chance we would like to do. They utilized the existing formula for funding roads, which is that they have to be in the federal aid system. Once it was stated the class of roads that were eligible it went to the Oakland Federal Aid Committee who rank the projects. Since the level of road funding is so far below the needs, there was already a five-year list of projects. They took those projects that weren’t designated until 2012 to 2014 and moved them up on the list. It wasn’t that new projects got funded; it was that existing projects on the bottom of the list got moved up.
Vice Chairperson Moore asked what that meant in terms of the Avon Road Bridge, and Mr. Webber responded that it was in limbo with no funding source at this point. Mr. Shumejko said that it was late last year when the Avon Road Bridge had to be weight restricted, and the County just missed the cutoff date to apply for the 2012 funding year. They submitted for 2013, but there is no guarantee they will get it because in the entire Metro region, which includes Oakland, Macomb, Wayne, and St. Clair Counties, there is only enough money to fund six bridges a year. The Mayor went to Washington D.C. to try to get a special earmark attached to the next funding bill, with Congressman Peter’s help.
Mr. Webber said another option they were looking at, which he was not sure was viable, was the City paying for the repair up front if they know they will get reimbursed, even if it isn’t 100 percent. Mr. Shumejko said the problem was that until the bridge is on the local bridge program list, we can’t get reimbursed for any monies expended. If we were to spend $200,000 now to do the design without the bridge formally being on the list we would not be reimbursed, so we have to hold off until it is official. If it is approved and put on the list for 2014, then any money expensed from that point forward is reimbursable.
Mr. Matich told the Board that they had filled out the grant applications and submitted for money for Crooks Road, but it didn’t come close to qualifying. Vice Chairperson Moore asked if what they were saying was that even though it was reported that half the money has not been applied for yet, you are saying it is already designated and so it is not available. There was some discussion about the meaning of the political dialog. Mr. Shumejko related that Oakland County got either 22 or 28 million dollars of stimulus money for its roads. According to the formula whatever the State of Michigan got MDOT took 75 percent off the top, and the remaining 25 percent went to all the other Metro Planning Organizations (MPOs).
Mr. Schneck explained that when the money comes to the Federal Aid Task Force, there are approximately 52 communities that compete to get their projects funded every year. After the applications are submitted they are ranked on a cost benefit ratio, and then they are put on a list. Each year all the way out to 2014 there is a list of projects that will be funded. When that money came to the Federal Aid Task Force they started with 2010 and went through the list and asked communities if they wanted to pull their project forward, until they exhausted 25.3 million dollars. Then they had to back-fill all the vacancies, so it helped in that some of the projects that were out in 2013 now become 2011 or 2012 projects. There is some speculation out there that based on bid savings, for example the City of Pontiac had a project that came in 27 percent under the engineer’s estimate, so there was $500,000 in so-called realized savings. As a result there was conversation of not only having the A list but also a B list funded if there were extra dollars from bid savings.
Mr. Matich said you would still need your plans in hand to run with them. Mr. Schneck agreed there was a short time schedule.
Chairperson Colling said they would move on to the next item on the agenda.