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The Shelby Township Board of Trustees voted to table a motion to support the construction and widening of Van Dyke at its Oct. 7 meeting, citing concerns about committing $1.1 million to the project so shortly before budget sessions.

“Yes, we want to widen the road, but we want to take a look and see what we’re able to work with first,” said Trustee Jim Carabelli. “I think that it’s premature to approve it at this time.”

The proposed project would widen Van Dyke to five lanes between 23 Mile and 24 Mile roads. Currently, the road fluctuates from as few as two lanes to as many as four, causing heavy traffic congestion. Shelby Junior High School, the Shelby Township Municipal Center, police department, library, senior center and 41-A District Court are all located within that stretch of Van Dyke.

“It’s heavily congested and the pavement is in very bad shape,” said Robert Hoepfner, RCMC county highway engineer. “It’s a very heavily traveled road.”

The RCMC has the project scheduled to be advertised for construction in late 2009, with construction to begin in 2010. The project would cost an estimated $5.4 million, with federal funding in the amount of approximately $2.9 million helping cover the project’s construction costs. Funds from less high-priority projects for the RCMC will also cover more than $250,000 of the project.

“Every year, the RCMC gets an allotment of about $14 million in federal funding,” said Hoepfner. “Those funds can be budgeted for upcoming projects we have, so we budgeted toward this one because we knew it needed to be done.”

Before the RCMC can move forward with the project, however, it needs the support of Shelby Township, who would need to agree to fund half of the project’s remaining $2.3 million. Township officials said it was premature to make that agreement with budget sessions approaching in the coming weeks. The township is going to have to look at how to manage the budget tightly at this time, said Treasurer Paul Viar.

“I don’t want to be pushed on this,” he said. “Even the country road commissioner said we didn’t have to decide within 30 days and could even possibly wait as long as six months to make a decision.”

Township Supervisor Ralph Maccarone said he also preferred to table the motion until after budgetary sessions. Maccarone said he presented the motion that evening only because he believed the RCMC needed an answer as soon as possible.

“I didn’t want to bring this forward tonight,” he said. “If (Hoepfner) told you it could wait, I have no problem tabling it.”

The vote to table the motion until after budget sessions was unanimous.