MACOMB TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WXYZ) — Macomb Township broke ground Tuesday on a $22.5 million expansion of Broughton Road, a project officials say will create a new downtown for the northern Macomb County community.
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The project, which has been in planning for decades, will extend Broughton Road a mile and a half through to 24 Mile Road. Township Supervisor Frank Viviano says the work could take two years to complete.
"We are creating a new downtown here in northern Macomb County," Viviano said.
When finished, Broughton Road will be a boulevard featuring roundabouts and street parking, designed to attract new businesses and mixed-use development. Viviano says the project will give residents a gathering place the township has long lacked.
"We lack that space where the community can come together and move up and down the street and have festivals," Viviano said. "This is our chance to really do that."
Viviano called it the most significant project of his career.
"This is the biggest project I will probably ever work on," Viviano said.
For former Township Supervisor John Brennan, Tuesday's groundbreaking was the culmination of a vision that dates back to his early days in local government.
"Our issues were always, you wanted an identity, so back then when I first started in the late '80s, Macomb was primarily farms, so we wanted a location, a place to identify the township with, and this was it," Brennan said.
Brennan said he was pleased to see the current administration build on earlier plans.
"It's incredible. I'm so happy that Supervisor Viviano took what we were planning and expanded it," Brennan said.
Kristen Arruda, who moved to Macomb Township from Clinton Township five years ago, got her first look at the renderings Tuesday.
"I knew they were talking about it, but I didn't know what the details were," Arruda said.
After seeing the plans, Arruda said she was impressed.
"I think it looks great. They did a good job, whoever did the design work," Arruda said.
The township says grant money, over $14 million, is paying for two-thirds of the project.
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