Novi residents annoyed by slow road project
NOVI, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) – A months-long project is underway to improve a portion of Novi road, but some who drive through the area feel like not much is being done.
Ever since the resurfacing project of Novi Road between Nine and Ten Mile Road began in March, people who live and work in the area say it's been nothing but headaches.
"It's been very inconsistent," Doug Moore, a Novi resident, said. "One day, you can drive down a road, and you're fine, and you know where you are–you think the road is closed this way. You get down to the end of the road, and it's closed a different way completely."
The first two stages of the project, including tree removal and replacing three culverts, are complete.
Now in the third and final phase, some residents feel work is at a standstill.
"It would be nice to see progress moving on a day-to-day basis. For a while there, they were jumping at it–they were fixing the roads–that was a bit more of a hassle because they're moving cars around and stop and go, but I'd rather see the people out there working and getting some done," Jeff Sneed, another Novi resident, said.
Others on social media wish the same.
In a thread on X, the Road Commission for Oakland County explained they're waiting for DTE to move their utility poles– something they knew had to be done last year. And because state law doesn't allow them to assess fines for the lack of inaction, they're at DTE's mercy.
"One of the things they said they've, obviously, had a lot of power outages due to storms and things, and they've had their crews busy working on those. We get that, but we also need to get our project done, and we don't want to hold up the construction any longer than we have to," Craig Bryson with Road Commission for Oakland County said.
DTE Energy provided this statement to CBS News Detroit on Thursday:
"DTE remains committed to improving and modernizing the electric grid in order to deliver safe, reliable and affordable energy to our customers. As part of this commitment, we're upgrading the electric infrastructure in Novi, including replacing utility poles with new, stronger poles that can better withstand extreme weather. Many different utility companies use these poles to house their service lines and equipment. When new poles are installed, each utility must relocate its equipment to the new pole, and the last utility to relocate their equipment is responsible for removing the old pole.
In this case, the last utility removed their equipment earlier today, so we are now working to send a crew out to remove the old pole to ensure the Road Commission for Oakland County can continue its vital work without further delays for residents and businesses in that community."
"They [the contractor] may not have been able to do a little of a few of the smaller tasks as quickly as they would like. But they have plenty of time left in the construction season to make up and get the project done on schedule. We hope that is the case," Bryson said/
The project is scheduled to be completed by mid-November.
