Bloomfield Township's Board of Trustees has awarded a $1.7 million construction contract to Bloomfield Hills-based OCG Companies for the next phase of the Jan Roncelli Safety Path, a project that will finally stitch together a continuous walking and biking route between Telegraph Road and Woodward Avenue. The board approved the contract unanimously, 7-0, on Monday, clearing the way for construction on a roughly 1,400-foot stretch along the south side of Quarton Road between North Cranbrook Road and Chesterfield Road.
The winning bid of $1,708,561.20 beat out three competitors, according to MLive.com, which reported bids from Livonia-based Anglin Civil at $2.1 million, Detroit-based Major Contracting Group at nearly $2.3 million, and Shelby Township-based Z Contractors at $2.3 million. Bloomfield Township is responsible for 23.61% of the total project cost, which comes out to $357,957.50 for work done within the township, plus $45,479.25 set aside for as-needed costs. The City of Birmingham will reimburse the township for the remaining portion of the contract, including approximately $100,000 in its own as-needed costs, per the same report.
The two municipalities are sharing more than just a border on this project. Bloomfield Township and Birmingham are using the same consulting engineering firm, Hubbell, Roth and Clark Inc., to design and oversee both sides of the work, a strategy first outlined when officials approved the design phase back in May 2025, according to C & G Newspapers. At that early stage, the township's share was projected at $661,000 and Birmingham's at $800,000, figures that have since been refined as the project moved from design to a competitively bid construction contract.
A Corridor Two Decades in the Making
Once finished, the safety path will provide a continuous, safe route for pedestrians between Telegraph Road and Woodward Avenue, MLive.com reports. It builds on prior cross-border cooperation along the same corridor: Bloomfield Township and Birmingham jointly installed a sidewalk connecting to the intersection of Woodward Avenue and Quarton Road between 2019 and 2020, according to C & G Newspapers' earlier account. On the Birmingham side, the safety path will extend from Pilgrim Road east to Lakeside Drive, and the city has significant engineering challenges to navigate on its stretch of the road, the outlet reported.
To pay for its share, Birmingham plans to lean on property owners directly. The city scheduled public hearings for September 2026 to create a Sidewalk Special Assessment District along the south side of Quarton Road from Pilgrim Avenue to west of Lakeside Drive, according to the City of Birmingham, a funding mechanism that lets municipalities bill the costs of new pathways to the adjacent properties that benefit from them.
Who Corey Almas Says Wants This
Township officials say the appetite for the project runs on both sides of the municipal line. Public support exists for the safety path project on both sides of the border, according to township official Corey Almas, as reported by MLive.com. Almas also noted that Birmingham is known as a walkable community, underscoring why the city has pushed to close this particular gap in its pedestrian network.
Almas outlined how cost overruns on the project would be handled going forward. Cost increases between 10% and 15% require approval from the township supervisor, while increases exceeding 15% require sign-off from the full township board, Almas said, per the same MLive.com report. The board approved the OCG Companies contract as presented, with no cost increase attached at the time of approval.
Funding the Township's Share
Bloomfield Township's portion of the project draws on a dedicated safety path millage that voters first approved in 1998 and most recently renewed in November 2022 as a five-year, 0.4511-mill levy. That levy, which cost property owners $1 per $1,000 of taxable value and was projected to collect $2,287,000 in its first year, funds both new pathway construction and ongoing maintenance across the township, according to C & G Newspapers' coverage of the 2022 renewal vote.
The Quarton Road project is one piece of a much greater, multi-decade effort. Guided by a Safety Path Master Plan first adopted in 1999 and updated in 2008, 2018 and 2024, Bloomfield Township has built nearly 80 miles of pedestrian pathways, with about 10.8 miles still to go, according to the Bloomfield Township government. Officials estimated in 2022 that finishing the remaining master plan miles would cost $15.8 million, and the township has supplemented its millage dollars with outside grants where possible — in November 2025, the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments awarded the township more than $1.4 million toward a separate safety path along Telegraph Road connecting Golf Drive to Mall Drive.
The Program's Namesake
The safety path program itself was renamed in 2020 in honor of former Bloomfield Township Clerk Jan Roncelli, who served on the township board beginning in 1996 and as clerk from 2004 until her retirement that year. Roncelli later received the 2023 Preservationist of the Year award from Preservation Bloomfield, which credited her with 24 years of public service championing walkability and historic preservation in the township.
Her tenure also included a difficult chapter. Roncelli was involved in a fatal pedestrian crash in Birmingham in September 2020, and an Oakland County Circuit Court judge dismissed a civil lawsuit against her in January 2022 after police and prosecutors had already cleared her of wrongdoing, with evidence showing the pedestrian stepped into her path outside a crosswalk, according to Downtown Publications. The incident prompted Bloomfield Township to discontinue issuing township vehicles to elected officials, the outlet reported.
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