Politics & Government
Storm Response Costs Road Commission $60,000
The Oakland County agency says wild weather that hit Huntington Woods and Berkley around the Fourth of July caused expensive outages that will impact spending on other road maintenance activities.
A series of wicked storms that blew through the area around the Fourth of July cost the Road Commission for Oakland County approximately $60,000.
The storms caused power outages that required Road Commission staff to run key traffic signals on generators, repair damaged signals and provide stop signs at signals without power, according to the RCOC.
"I think the public is largely unaware that a tremendous amount of time and effort is required to keep key traffic signals functioning during widespread power outages," RCOC Chairman Eric Wilson said. "Doing that is not cheap, and is not part of our routine work, so the cost for doing that takes money away from other road maintenance activities."
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The commission is responsible for more than 2,700 miles of roadway and 230 miles of state highways, including Woodward Avenue in Huntington Woods and Berkley.
More than 125 signals were without power, many for several days, after the heat wave and storms, according to the RCOC.
Find out what's happening in Huntington Woods-Berkleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
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manager Claire Galed put the cost of tree-trimming services and overtime July 5-7 at approximately $2,000.
"It's going to be expensive, there's no doubt about it," City Manager Alex Allie said of the storms' impact.
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