The Erie County Legislature approved a $27.1 million infrastructure improvement plan for county roadways Thursday. The spending plan includes $4.5 million for additional roads in need of repair this year.
The plans include a total of 60 projects on highways, roads and bridges in Erie County. The additional roadways in need of repairs due to the severe winter include Bayview Road in Hamburg, Lake Avenue in Hamburg, Pleasant Avenue in Hamburg, Cayuga Creek Road in Cheektowaga, Eckhardt Road in Eden, Waverly Road in Concord and Conner Road in Clarence.
The other major infrastructure projects include the mill and overlay of heavily trafficked roads such as Sowles Road from Rte. 20 to McKinley in Hamburg, Hopkins Road from Dodge to Klein in Amherst, and Eden-Evans Center Road from I-90 to Derby in Evans.
Other significant projects include Goodrich Road in Clarence from Lapp Road to the Niagara County Line and Brighton Road in Amherst from Niagara Falls Boulevard to Fries.
Additional road and bridge work, including major bridge replacements, micropaving and oil and chipping, will take place in numerous municipalities across the county including Whitehaven Road in Grand Island, Center Street in Aurora/Holland and Boston State Road in Hamburg/Boston.
Erie County Legislator Joseph Lorigo says the projects were unanimously approved.
“We called the special session. We got the list of the projects. We had a terrible winter, there are potholes everywhere. People have been complaining left and right. We needed to get this done today,” said Lorigo.
Funding for the projects come from the 2013 county budget surplus, additional State Consolidated Highway Improvement Program or CHIPS funds and surplus Transfer Tax revenues. The infrastructure projects will begin over the next few months.