CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. — With the warmer weather here, it's the season of orange cones, yellow hardhats, and large construction equipment-- not to mention some traffic delays.
Erie County officials gave the media their road construction briefing so 2 On Your Side could bring you some of the highlights.
The Erie County Department of Public Works has put out their overall nearly $50 million highway reconstruction program for the summer season. They spotlighted work on Borden Road which alone will cost $11.5 million. It includes a lot of water and sewer infrastructure work as well
With 113 miles of the county's 1,200 center lane road miles in the mix, major road work is also set for Kenmore Avenue in Tonawanda, Vermont Street in Holland, Back Creek Road in Holland, Trevett Road in Concord, and finishing up with East-West Road in West Seneca.
Upcoming work is also slated for Cheektowaga - portions of Cayuga Road, Tonawanda - portions of Brighton Road, Orchard Park - Michael Road, and Lancaster - part of Como Lake Boulevard.
Also on the list: $4.7 Million Mill and Overlay projects for Lancaster- Pavement, Sardinia - Miller and Genesee, Amherst - Tonawanda Creek, Mill, Grand Island - East River, West Seneca - Seneca Street, Cheektowaga - Bennett, Lackawanna - Abbott, Eden - Shadagee, and Boston - Taylor.
Then for the Cold Recycle and Top Course Treatment category: Colden - Lewis, Colden & Holland - Crump, Wales - Maple Hill, Lancaster - Pavement, Ransom, Sardinia - Pratham, Collins - Gowanda Zoar, Concord - Foote, Hamburg - Newton, and Boston - Pfarner.
In addition $2.2 Million in Oil & Chip work is set for 34 county roads in rural areas and towns like Elma, Newstead, Holland, Wales, Marilla, Aurora, Sardinia, Collins, Concord, North Collins, Eden, Boston, Evans.
Finally some $6.3 million in bridge and culvert projects including substantial work for the North French and County Road bridges in Amherst and Clarence.
The construction priority list is determined by county DPW managers and staffers and an industry-safe road scoring system according to Deputy DPW Commissioner Karen Hoak who told us "We use the road score that is done every two years to evaluate what the condition of the road is. Also, factor in the traffic counts. So that is how we select our candidates that we put forward for the road program."
And why isn't there more from the massive $550 Billion dollar federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Act. Well, we're told some of the funding hasn't yet filtered down from the feds to Albany to the counties. Erie County Executive Mark Pooncarz said "For most people who were expecting - 'WOW' - they did this multi Billion dollar Infrastructure Bill - that is over five years. So what's nice about that is they're gonna be continual money coming in. It's just not one big chunk of money.".
Poloncarz adds that $3 Million is allocated for road projects in the City of Buffalo.
For more details and information you can check online with the Erie County Department of Public Works.