Milan City has slated two road projects to start this summer and plans to schedule a third for the same time. However, a fourth project the city expected to move forward—Second Street, which some call the worst street in the city—is paused due to holds on federal funding.
West Michigan & Ann Marie
The city expects to finish a half million dollar undertaking to improve West Michigan Avenue and Ann Marie Drive over three to four weeks.
“Those are quick ones,” City Manager Jim Lawrence said. “So, the intent will be to start after school’s out because we don’t want to mess with bus routes.”
The city will pay Al’s Asphalt $417,000 to grind down two layers of the roads and then repave them, which can extend the life of the roads 15 years, Lawrence said. The city is paying OHM $101,000 to design and oversee the projects.
The projects will extend the full length of Ann Marie and along West Michigan from Ash to the west side of North Street.
The projects were chosen because they qualified for an MDOT grant for preventative projects through the Transportation Economic Development Fund.
City Engineer Marcus McNamara, with OHM out of Ann Arbor, obtained the grant for half the cost. McNamara said between 10-15 cities were chosen out of 70-80 competing for the funding.
“It’s already been bid,” Lawrence said. “The contract’s already been signed. They’re basically ready to go. We didn’t want to do it during school because of the traffic.”
Pam Armstrong, a resident of Ann Marie Street, spoke during public comments at the March 18 meeting after the city approved bids for the work on her road.
“Thank you because it’s not a horrible road, but it needs work,” Armstrong said, adding, “I just want to tell you thanks. I’ve been coming for about a year now and I just want to tell you guys I know it’s a tough job. I’ve seen it, sitting here. So, thank you for all you do.”
East Michigan
Lawrence said they also hope to complete work on East Michigan this summer, a $900,000 project for which the city was able to obtain $382,000 in federal funding. That project would include concrete and watermain work, which makes it a much bigger and more timely project, he said.
“We are hoping to complete this phase around the same time if possible,” Lawrence said.
Second Street in Milan needs a total reconstruction, but expected federal funding has been delayed.
Second Street
Second Street, an estimated $2.3 million project, was on U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell’s recommendation to fund list. However, when this year’s federal budget failed to pass so did funding for Second Street. The street requires total reconstruction, along with replaced water mains.
Every year, Lawrence said, cities provide their federal representatives a list of the projects most in need of funding support. Second Street topped Milan’s list and Dingell advocated for the project among her top 15 to obtain federal funds.
Lawrence said the city is working with Dingell to get the $1,725,000 they’ve requested on that project from the federal government. If they get word of the funding later this year – probably December – they would pay for the design work in 2026 and the project could be completed as soon as 2027.
“Nothing is fast because I’m not going to pay someone to engineer a project we’re not going to have the budget for,” Lawrence said.
Lawrence said they want to change the water lines under the road to create redundancy in the water system.
“We want to make that a second main to come off the water tower coming off of Green Tree,” Lawrence said. “We’re making it bigger. We’re increasing the size to try to create more redundancy and more normalized pressure in the system.”
Funding
Lawrence said the state needs to fund roads better. Without adequate local and state revenue, communities are left vying for grant money.
“Second street is one of the biggest complaints we get,” Lawrence said. “We’d like to be able to fund it ourselves.”
State road funding is based on the total length of roads in a community.
Last year Milan received $880,000 for major roads and $350,000 toward local roads. Much of that money was used for plowing costs, staff and maintenance.
Lawrence said the city has prioritized major road projects since it’s easier to get state match funding. The last two years the city has done work on County Road. Before that the city also did work on Main St. and Platt Road.
Some consider Second Street the worst street in Milan. The city is working to fix the road, and install new water mains underneath, but is waiting for word on federal funding.
8123 Main St Suite 200 Dexter, MI 48130
