MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - Every year Meridian Township does about $700,000 worth of local road maintenance. Meridian Township residents have probably noticed that the 2017 projects are now underway.

The road construction is completed in three phases. First, a contractor comes through and mills the streets, which removes some of the existing asphalt. A second contractor then comes and does the Hot-n-Place recycling, which is a process of grinding up the asphalt and reusing it. The last and final contractor comes and finishes the road with a thin asphalt overlay.

As long as the weather permits, Director of Public Works & Engineering Derek Perry said the work should be complete by the end of the month. Perry said, "We appreciate everyone's patience while we do this. We know it can be trying and it is disruptive if they're in your neighborhood, but again in September/October the roads look great and hopefully you've forgotten about the inconvenience."

Local road work won't stop there. Perry explained all roads are determined on a rating scale of 1 through 10; 10 being a brand new road and 1 means the road has failed. About 40% of Meridian Township's road have a rating between 1-3. Perry went on to say this year all the road will be re-rated so they can put together a plan to figure out how much money will be needed to get all the roads in the 8-10 range and if it will be possible to raise the money to do so.