By: K. Michelle Moran | Grosse Pointe Times | Published November 20, 2023
GROSSE POINTE CITY — Although roadwork is still taking place throughout the region, Grosse Pointe City is already gearing up for work that won’t be done until next year.
During a Sept. 18 Grosse Pointe City Council meeting, the council voted unanimously in favor of the 2024 road improvement plan, and to authorize the city manager to develop bid specifications for it. At press time, the plan for next year is to work on Lakeland Avenue between Maumee and Kercheval avenues, and Lakeland between Waterloo Street and Charlevoix Avenue.
“Historically … this was done a little later in the year,” City Manager Joseph Valentine said of approving the program. “We will try to get our bids out as early as we can in the beginning of January to get better bids.”
Approving the program early enables city administrators to prepare bid documents well in advance, so that they’ll be ready to seek proposals at the start of the new year. Valentine said this enables the City to get better pricing from contractors than they would by putting the bids out later, once contractors have started to line up work for the construction season. The City has been going out to bid early over the last few years for this reason.
One change, though, is the decision not to have a PASER evaluation done this year. The PASER system rates roads on a scale of one to 10, with good meaning a rating of eight to 10, fair meaning a rating of five to seven, and poor meaning a rating of one to four.
“That’s a little overzealous,” Valentine said of having a PASER rating done annually. “It doesn’t really change much year to year.”
He also said having the evaluation conducted every other year would save the city some money.
When the council approved the road program in 2022, City Engineer Stephen Pangori — of Anderson, Eckstein and Westrick Inc. — said Grosse Pointe City was “one of the only cities to do a PASER rating every year.”
Funds for road improvement in 2024 will come from the road millage, which Valentine said is expected to generate $1,021,938 in the 2023 to 2024 fiscal year.
“I think this is the 10th year” of the City’s 15-year road millage, Pangori said.
In August 2014, City voters approved an annual road levy of up to 2.5 mills for 15 years. Work using millage dollars started in 2015.