Small project brings total area road construction efforts up to 3

A third lakes area road construction project is set to begin today as the Road Commission for Oakland County (RCOC) will be closing Livingston Road in Highland Township from Wednesday, May 18 to Friday, May 20 so the CSX Railroad can make repairs at the road crossing.

“They will be resurfacing the crossing and looking at the tracks to see if any need replacing,” said RCOC Spokesperson Craig Bryson.

The closure will impact Livingston Road between Milford Road and Harvey Lake Road. During the closure, the detour route for through traffic will be Milford Road to M-59 to Harvey Lake Road, and vice versa.

In addition, the heavy maintenance project at the intersection of Pontiac Trail and West Maple Road in Walled Lake began Tuesday, May 10.

The work is intended to provide a temporary repair for the highly-deteriorated pavement in that area. A full reconstruction of the intersection is planned for 2012.

Work will take place between approximately 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. during weekdays.

Maple Road east of Pontiac Trail will be reduced to one lane in either direction during work hours.

No weekend work is currently planned. The work is expected to be completed by the end of May or early June.

Work will include removing all old pothole patching material, removing any loose concrete, applying new hot-mix asphalt patching material and then compacting it with a roller.

The costs of the project will be covered by the RCOC.

Finally, to begin preparatory work on a new roundabout that will connect Martin Parkway to M-5 and Pontiac Trail in Commerce Township, the RCOC has closed the outside westbound lane of Pontiac Trail at M-5 on Friday, May 6.
The outside lane will be closed around the clock for several weeks while AT&T relocates a facility in preparation for the upcoming construction of a modern roundabout at the M-5/Pontiac Trail/Martin Parkway intersection.

“AT&T must be done by June 1 per our agreement,” Bryson said.
Lighted barrels, an arrow board and signs will warn motorists of the lane closure. Motorists should expect traffic delays during the work.

The $5 million roundabout project is being paid for by the Commerce Downtown Development Authority (DDA), the RCOC, the county general government and a state grant, according to Bryson.

Most of the roundabout will be two lanes, but there will be three lanes at the north end.

Actual roundabout construction will begin in early June with a tentative finish date slated for Nov. 1.

“We don’t have a firm start date because we haven’t had the pre-construction meeting with the contractor, but we still expect it to begin in early June,” Bryson said.

During the roundabout construction, Pontiac Trail will be closed between M-5 and Welch Road, but M-5 will remain open.

The detour will be Welch Road to Maple to Haggerty to Pontiac Trail, and vice versa.

Motorists will still be able to access westbound Pontiac Trail to southbound M-5, and northbound M-5 to eastbound Pontiac Trail.