Rebuilding of Avon Bridge Likely to Begin in April 2012

City leaders are "extremely confident" that the much-needed rebuilding of the Avon Bridge will begin next April, about a year earlier than originally scheduled.

Rochester Hills Mayor Bryan Barnett said he is working nonstop to move that reconstruction ahead even further — maybe even to this year.

this month when the Road Commission for Oakland County discovered advanced deterioration of the bridge and closed all but one lane in each direction at the Avon-Livernois intersection.

The lane closures have caused a steady bottleneck at the intersection, which is one of the city's busiest.

The rebuilding of the bridge was approved under the federal Local Bridge Program for 2013. When the Road Commission noted the advanced deterioration of the bridge and closed the lanes, city leaders started working to find a quicker solution.

Representatives from the Road Commission will be at Monday's City Council meeting to give an update on the project. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at Rochester Hills City Hall.

"We are frustrated with it," Barnett said. "Everyone on our team is on the phone daily with the Road Commission, but it's not like we can just say we're going to do it — it's somebody else's bridge. 

"I'm extremely confident it will be moved to 2012," he said. "And we are trying to see if there is any way for the construction to happen in 2011."

Craig Bryson, spokesman for the Road Commission, agreed that it was "fairly likely" the rebuilding would be moved ahead one year.

In other road news

One much-needed road project will happen six years ahead of schedule, a county task force announced last week. The widening and reconstruction of Crooks Road from Starr Batt to north of Hamlin Road was originally scheduled for 2018; instead, it will happen in 2012.

That schedule change is the work of the Oakland County Federal Aid Task Force Funding Committee, which meets each February to select projects that will receive road funding four years in the future. It includes members of the Road Commission, the Michigan Department of Transportation and various municipalities.

The task force also moved the resurfacing of Avon Road from Crooks to Livernois roads from 2014 to 2013.

In addition, the task force awarded $19.3 million in funding for road projects in 2015. Those projects included:

• The resurfacing of Hamlin Road from Livernois to Dequindre roads.
• The resurfacing of Avon Road from Adams to Crooks roads.
• The resurfacing of North Squirrel Road from Walton Boulevard to Dutton Road in Auburn Hills.