Huntington Woods to get $250,000 for road improvement

HUNTINGTON WOODS — The city of Huntington Woods has secured a grant to repair one of its roads.

Huntington Woods was one of 28 cities and villages picked to receive grant funding from the Michigan Department of Transportation’s Community Service Infrastructure Fund Category B program.

“These grants will help 28 communities across Michigan fix their local roads faster to save drivers time and money,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a press release. “Since I took office, Michigan has fixed 23,000 lane miles of road and 1,600 bridges while supporting over 89,000 jobs, and today’s funding will build on that total.”

The 28 cities, all of which have a population of less than 10,000, will get a total of $5.1 million. For its part, Huntington Woods will receive $250,000. The grants that were awarded went to projects for road resurfacing, culvert replacement, pavement crack sealing and other preservative measures.

According to a press release, the CSIF Category B program helps fund road projects in small communities and the projects were selected because they’re paired with “planned infrastructure work, coordinated with other road agencies, focused on extending the useful life of the road and had limited funding sources.”

The $250,000 that Huntington Woods will get will improve Newport Boulevard. City Manager Chris Wilson said this funding is critical for the city’s upcoming construction work.

“State funding for local roads has often not kept up with our needs,” he said. “So, the state’s been making these additional grant allocations, and they’re very helpful to help us get our local roads back in the condition they need to be.”

Newport’s construction will be a part of Huntington Woods’ road construction next summer, along with many other roads that the city will improve. Wilson said this grant funding will go specifically toward the Newport project.

“We’ve been very aggressive the last three years,” he said. “We’ve been allocating bond funding that the voters approved previously for road, water and sewer repairs. So, we’ve been making aggressive use of that. Our roads are probably … above average, and we’re working on getting them in good condition.”