Orchard Park, N.Y. (WBEN) - Despite the winter season approaching in Western New York, favorable weather conditions in the region have allowed Erie County Department of Public Work crews to work on several roadways across the region, as the 2024 season approaches its end.
Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz joined the Commissioner for the Public Works department Bill Geary to discuss and review the work that has gone into roadways across the county this year, including along Abbott Road in Orchard Park near Lackawanna.
"This year alone, it came up to be a $55.8 million road project season, the most money we've ever spent in one year on road projects," said Poloncarz during a press briefing on Friday.
"This is our most expensive program. About 50% of our projects, the engineering projects like Abbott Road, New Road, Borden Road, those are multi-seasonal-type projects," added Geary. "As you can see, we have there's an extensive effort of coordination that the team in Public Works goes through, working with Erie County Sewer, Erie County Water to make sure that all these projects are done in a proper sequence so that the disruption to the traveling public is only the course of maybe one season, full season, maybe this year into next year."
Poloncarz says it was a very busy season for the Public Works crews with several different projects taking part across all areas of Erie County.
"More than 100 miles of roads were repaired this year by Erie County, and our contractor partners that we utilize," Poloncarz said. "Just to give you an example: 12.51 miles of county roads were mill and overlay at an expense of $2.5 million, and there's listings all across the county. But to give you an idea of the towns: Elma, North Collins, Eden, Hamburg, Brant, Mineral Springs in West Seneca, Zoar Valley Road in Springville, and also Concord, Clarence, all saw major work done this year with our mill and overlay crews.
"11 miles of a cold recycle and top course. This is a really neat process in which as we mill the road, they immediately used the millings to lay down a new layer, instead of just having all brand new blacktop. We found that this process works very well, especially on more of our rural roads. So we did 11 miles of roads at a cost of $2.2 million in Holland, Sardinia, Concord, Grand Island as well on Baseline Road from Bush to Whitehaven.
"And then, of course, we did 71.5 miles of roads, oil and chip, which is what we use predominantly in our rural roads, across the entire compass of the rural communities of Erie County."
Construction remains ongoing with several Engineering Projects around the county, including the Abbott Road and Willet Road rehabilitation, an investment of $6.9 million that is fully funded by Erie County.
"All our roads are extremely important. Abbott Road, though, is a major, important arterial for the Southern half of our county to get ambulance service to the nearest hospital, which is South Buffalo Mercy," Geary noted. "In Erie County's jurisdiction, we basically take from South Abbott all the way into Dorrance and into the city of Buffalo. So this year, first responders and anybody getting a ride in the ambulance on the new service is going to be extremely impressed, and be able to get there, hopefully in a faster amount of time now with the newer surfaces."
Other rehabilitation project across the county includes Borden Road in Cheektowaga, New Road in Amherst, and Trevett Road in Springville.
"And I just want to thank Mother Nature for giving us a very nice fall that allowed us to get these projects done, and not have to potentially push some of the closures off till next spring," Poloncarz added.