RCOC, township to share cost of widening Haggerty

An article by Angela Niemi    2 Comments

In another partnership move to improve roadways within Commerce Township, the township’s Board of Trustees and the Road Commission for Oakland County (RCOC) have entered into a cost participation agreement for the preliminary design of improvements to Haggerty Road.

The improvements would occur between Oakley Park and Richardson roads.

Because the design phase is only in the preliminary stages, Township Clerk Dan Munro said they are looking into turning that portion of Haggerty into a three-lane roadway with a turning lane running continuously all the way through.

“When you come up on Haggerty and pass Pontiac Trail, the traffic gets congested even before you reach Oakley Park and Richardson Road,” he said. “With the additional traffic improvements made in Martin Parkway, we’ve studied the traffic volume flowing up Haggerty Road. We hope to alleviate it, but the roadway needs a better design. It’s very frustrating for Commerce residents and other folks north of Commerce Township to sit in roadway that has not been improved for dozens and dozens of years, just to get to Richardson Road to get home.”

The project is estimated to cost approximately $2 million. The cost would be split between the RCOC, Commerce, and the federal government. Over $1 million would come from federal funds with the township contributing a little over $460,000.

“We hope to use the federal funding with participation from Commerce Township and the road commission to maximize the improvements we can afford for residents,” said Munro, who hopes the project will get under way within the next two years. “But it’s the RCOC’s call, not ours. We would love to do it. We’ve been wanting to make improvements to this road for years, but we were handcuffed by surrounding communities who didn’t want Haggerty to have five lanes. Now we are just doing the best we can to make improvements with what we have.”