Road Paving Projects

Anatomy of a Road Paving Plan:

We have received questions from residents on how the Township decides which roads to pave each year, so we thought it would be appropriate to put the information here for you!

• A few years ago, the Township did a long-term road paving plan, which laid out which roads would be paved which years.
• Every year before budget season, we take that list and do a drive through around Town to assess each road to determine a few things:
  • Which roads on the schedule for that year actually need it; if any one road does not, it won't get paved that year because that's not a good use of taxpayer funds - to pave a road that doesn't need it when so many other roads are in desperate need.
  • Which roads, NOT on that schedule, are in the most need of paving or more drastic reconstruction and need to be moved up on the list.
  • Based on the above process, our we come up with a list of roads we want to pave each year with the known funds we will have; then a "B" list of roads we will pave if we can find/win/earn extra funds. 
• We commit at least $750,000 a year to road paving in our town budget; that does not include any grant money that we may apply for and receive, or any other form of outside funding (such as this $410,000 grant); based on the survey described above, we present that list to Council each year during budget season. Council passes capital ordinances approving capital funds for various road projects; the ordinances are specific to each road project. We tentatively include grant money we think we may received each year in our internal calculations as we try to budget for that year's paving project, yet we cannot realize that money in our budget in any given year until that money is actually awarded. 
• When we plan road projects, we plan to pave groups of roads in close proximity to each other together; this allows us to pack in more paving work at a lower cost because the contractor does not have to pick up and move around town on each job. Take, for example, the drainage, curbing and paving project currently going on in the Fairfax, Windsor and Tudor area. 
• The coast of paving roads varies from month to month, year to year. Municipalities have to "go out to bid" for projects over a certain amount of money - which means they have to put the project specs out on the open market and have companies "bid" on doing the job; we are obligated to use the lowest bidder. 
• If any bids come in lower than anticipated, we may be able to pave another road with the extra money budgeted. It's always a happy day when that happens!
• As soon as our paving plan is firmed up and funded, we put it on the Township website and update it accordingly so residents have an idea of what roads will be paved, when.