Street Bond plans

As part of the construction season, water mains on four local roads have been replaced and two parking lots – at Northville Square and Tipping Point Theatre – have been repaved.

At Tipping Point, curbs and driveways were also installed at the fully reconstructed parking lot. Jeffrey Drive and Carrington Drive have been resurfaced with 1.5 inch mill and fill and necessary base and curb repairs.

Maplewood Street was repaved with repairs made to the base and curb. On High Street, from West Dunlap to Randolph, and on Wing Court, full reconstruction was completed. Fairbrook Street (First to Wing) and Fairbrook Court has a newly paved street and curb repairs. Water mains have previously been replaced on those streets.

Funds from the street bond approved by voters in 2018 were used to pay for a portion of these projects. A $3,050,000 Street Improvement Bond was issued to be paid over 10 years. That fund supplements the annual $550,000 budgeted for these projects. Work was front-loaded to the first three years (2019-2021) to slow the rate of deterioration while replacing and repairing a wide section of the City’s streets.

Fleis & VandenBrink provides consulting and oversight for the city’s street and water main repair and replacement program along with related infrastructure projects. If you have questions about the road improvement program, please contact them onsite: 586.899.7015, or their office: 248.536.1997. \

In mid-February, the City of Northville requested bids for road replacement and repairs for the 2020 Local Road Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Program. Eight companies responded. After vetting those bids, it was determined that Nagle Paving, of Novi, had the best pricing and qualifications. 

The company received a green light on three proposals from City Council at its March 16 meeting: 

1) Replace water and sanitary sewer mains and reconstruct the streets (2.44 lane miles) after those infrastructure repairs are completed at a cost of $1,820,805. Six streets will be repaired. 

2) Complete approximately two (2) miles of street reconstruction at a total cost of $1,491,595 on four streets. 

3) Perform mill and fill work on 1.87 miles of surface on three streets at a cost of $757,400. 

Bidigare Contractors, of Plymouth Twp., was awarded the contract for the 2020 Water Main Replacement program in the amount of $718,210 – a bid that was 26% lower than the second low bidder. The company will use a “pipe bursting” technique that replaces pipe in-situ in 300-foot sections. As a result, water to residents will only be off for a few hours at a time. The water and sanitary sewer mains on Grace Street, Maplewood St. to Hill St. will be done through Nagle, since the water and sanitary sewer lines will require open trenching for replacement. Please note: No work on the water/sewer lines will be done during the COVID-19 governor's order 2020-21. 

View the chart to see which roads are included in these projects. Baseline Rd. rehabilitation project from the 2019 bid will be part of this year’s construction season. 

The City is working with engineering consultant Fleis & VandenBrink on the design and construction oversight of these projects.

Residents on the streets slated for repair will be notified about work schedules, detours and parking restrictions via fliers, the City’s website and posts on social media.

This construction work is the result of voter approval in 2018 of the issuance of $3,050,000 in bonds, paid for over 10 years to finance street improvements.

There’s a science to determining how roads should be repaired or replaced, balanced by practicality and traffic flow. 

The process of evaluation and analysis starts with rating roads using the Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating (PASER) system, an industry-standard assessment in which trained analysts drive each segment of road (from intersection to intersection) and score it from one (the worst) to 10 (a new road). Roads rated 7 or 8 may require routine maintenance, such as crack sealing or minor patching. Roads rated 4-6 are considered to be in “fair” condition and may need preventive maintenance, such as an overlay or joint repairs. Roads rated less than 4 are candidates for extensive repairs or reconstruction. 

After each segment is rated, Roadsoft, a pavement management software, is used to define the type of repair, its cost and the allocated budget, to determine the most cost-effective way to attain the best overall condition for the roadway network (roads owned by the City). The software also defines how many lane miles of each type of repair must be done to attain the long-term condition goals for the roadway network. The City aims to attain an average rating of 6 OCI (Overall Condition Index) with millage funding. 

To determine which roads are the best candidates for the extensive repairs, a Network Priority Rating (NPR) is calculated for each pavement segment. Calculations are based on these five factors: PASER rating, pavement priority, pavement use, segment length, and pavement classification. 

Pavement Priority is classified as: 1) low – only residential and mostly local residents; 2) medium – periodic commercial, frequent residential traffic; and 3) high – frequent commercial and high use of local traffic. 

Pavement use has four categories: major residential, major commercial and local residential and local commercial. It is related to the location, degree of utilization and expected traffic type/frequency of a particular road segment. 

The segment length uses calculations developed by the state in its Roadsoft program. 

Pavement classification – There are basically five categories: 1) asphalt standard duty, 2) asphalt heavy duty, 3) concrete standard duty, 4) concrete heavy duty, and 5) asphalt overlay composite (asphalt over concrete). Standard vs. heavy-duty is based in part on the thickness of the pavement.

Once the NPR is calculated, all segments that are candidates for a particular treatment are determined, based on pavement type (asphalt, concrete, or composite) and PASER rating. These segments are then evaluated using NPR to determine a rating, with the highest values given top priority. Segments are then chosen for repair until reaching the total lane miles of treatment recommended in a particular year. 

For example, this shows one year of the City’s long-term strategy:

Type of road Repair Lane miles

Asphalt Reconstruction	.252
Asphalt 3” Mill and Overlay	.256
Asphalt Crack Seal	4.062
Composite 3” Mill and Overlay	.418
Composite Crack Seal	1.389
Concrete Asphalt Overlay	.330

Types of repairs that will improve the road network

Upgrades to roads include reconstruction, mill and overlay, and crack seal repairs for roads made of asphalt, composite and concrete. Reconstruction is a complete tear-down and rebuild; mill and overlay is a process of grinding down the top layer – the wearing layer – and setting down new layers of material (allowing the base of the road to last longer); and crack-seal repairs are used to apply asphalt to a crack to prevent water from seeping into the pavement and potentially creating a pothole. 

When scheduling repairs or replacement, practical aspects must be taken into account. For example, when major water main or sewer work is scheduled in a given year, major road repairs on that same section of road would be made immediately following that repair. 

Once all streets to be repaired are determined for each year, a manual review is conducted to balance the location of repairs with other construction planned or underway (e.g. construction of new homes or a commercial building). That way, repairs don’t create gridlock in one part of town. With proper planning, multiple repairs can be done sequentially.

Property owners in Northville can assess their cost for the street bond by using an online calculator. You can find your taxable value on your tax statement or on the BSA website. The taxable value is no more than half of the market value. Using a calculator, multiply your taxable value by 0.00098.

Example: