Federal funding to cover bulk of Cadieux resurfacing costs

GROSSE POINTE CITY/PARK — Federal funding is making work on a portion of Cadieux Road possible for Grosse Pointe City and Grosse Pointe Park this year.

At an April 17 Grosse Pointe City Council meeting, Grosse Pointe City Manager Pete Dame announced that the City had gotten bids to resurface Cadieux Road between Kercheval and Jefferson avenues. Cadieux divides Grosse Pointe City from Grosse Pointe Park. The Grosse Pointe City Council unanimously approved a low bid from Ajax Paving Industries Inc. — one of four bidders — to do the work for $754,488.88. The total cost of the project, with engineering, is $903,362, Dame said.

An award of Federal Surface Transportation Funds will pay for $613,922 of the construction costs, or more than 80%. The funding came through the Wayne County Federal Aid Committee.

Dame said the bids came in about 13% above the City engineers’ estimates.

“It’s still a great deal,” Dame said, noting that the federal match covers the majority of the costs.

“Sounds good,” Grosse Pointe City Councilman Christopher Walsh said.

Grosse Pointe City will pay about $242,575 to cover its portion of the project, while Grosse Pointe Park will pay $46,865.29.

As Grosse Pointe Park City Manager Nick Sizeland said during an April 24 Park City Council meeting, the Park collects Act 51 funding for the northern 55 feet of this stretch of Cadieux.

The arrangement of who is responsible for this border road is different from the arrangement Grosse Pointe City has with Grosse Pointe Farms for Fisher Road, another major street that separates two municipalities.

Dame explained in a memo to the Grosse Pointe City Council that, “unlike the historic understanding with Grosse Pointe Farms, where the costs to maintain the border street of Fisher Road … are split 50/50, Grosse Pointe City and Grosse Pointe Park each take care of 100% of … Cadieux based on the Act 51 delineation. Grosse Pointe Park is 100% responsible for Cadieux from Kercheval (Avenue) to Mack Avenue. The end result is that each municipality is still responsible for half of Cadieux as a border road but it is split side to side instead of essentially down the middle like Fisher Road.”

“It’s been a cooperative (effort) between both of our cities that’s worked out well for years,” Sizeland said. “It’s quite a deal.”

Dame said this is the second time the City and Park had gotten this federal funding for Cadieux.

Sizeland said the work would likely be done at the end of the school year.

“This is a win-win,” Park City Councilman Max Wiener said. “It’s needed.”