ROAD COMMISSION, LAKE ORION COMMUNITY SCHOOLS, ORION TOWNSHIP WORKING TOGETHER TO ENSURE STUDENTS GET SAFELY TO SCHOOL DURING BALDWIN ROAD CONSTRUCTION PROJECT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Aug. 19, 2019 – The Road Commission for Oakland County (RCOC), Lake Orion Community Schools district and Orion Township are working together to ensure students of the school district are able to get safely to school this fall given the road closures resulting from RCOC’s Baldwin Road widening and reconstruction project in the township.
“When completed, the Baldwin Road project will provide significant traffic-flow improvements in southwestern Orion Township,” observed RCOC Managing Director Dennis Kolar. “However, during the construction process, we recognize that motorists, including school buses and parents driving children to and from school, will experience challenges, especially with the closure of east/west roads at Baldwin.”
The $50 million project involves widening and reconstructing Baldwin Road between Morgan and Waldon roads, though the section between Morgan and Gregory is essentially finished. Maybee Road is currently closed in both directions at Baldwin Road, and is expected to remain closed through the late fall. It is expected that Waldon Road will be closed at the east side of the Baldwin intersection for a portion of the fall also.
The school district is adjusting its bus routes to accommodate these closures. Students and parents should anticipate that bus routes and parent drop offs and pick-ups will take longer than normal to accommodate the detour routes. “We appreciate both parents’ and students’ patience as we complete this important road-improvement project,” Kolar stated.
Orion Township Supervisor Chris Barnett concurred. “We understand that major road-improvement projects such as this often require temporary adjustments by residents to accommodate the work, and this project is no different,” Barnett said. “I ask our impacted parents and students to please bear with us while the Road Commission completes this transformational project. When this project is done, this section of the Baldwin corridor will be completely transformed into a beautiful, much-better-functioning modern corridor that will be a showcase for our community.”
While school district policy is that buses do not travel into subdivisions to pick up children, the district will make several specific exceptions in the vicinity of the Baldwin project, so that buses can turn around near where there are roads closed. This is being done for the safety of students and convenience of the buses, but will not be done in any other locations.
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