FILLING IN THE GAPS
Major two-year sewer project gets underway on anniversary of Christmas Eve sinkhole
Almost four years to the day after a sewer collapse along 15 Mile Road in Fraser created a sinkhole forcing dozens to evacuate their homes, the Macomb County Public Works Office is taking on a construction project to the west of that site to prevent another infrastructure disaster.
The two-year, $24 million project is just to the west of Eberlein Drive in Fraser, the site of the sinkhole that opened up Christmas Eve 2016 and forced the evacuation of 23 homes on Eberlein Drive in Fraser. The project will line and reinforce the last section of unlined pipe along that 15 Mile Road stretch to prevent another infrastructure disaster from occurring in that section of the Macomb Interceptor sanitary sewer.
A construction firm is digging a 65-foot-deep shaft in the ITC Corridor, west of Schoenherr Road in Sterling Heights, to reach the massive sewer that carries the waste flushed by more than 500,000 people from nearly a dozen communities in Macomb County.
That section of the Interceptor, west of the location of the 2016 sinkhole, is also known as Segment 5. It’s the last major stretch of unreinforced, large
diameter concrete pipe on 15 Mile Road that needs to be lined. The project is expected to be completed in mid-2022. Little traffic disruption is expected.
The 11-foot diameter tunnel will be lined with glass fiber reinforced polymer pipe for 7,000 lineal feet. Heading east from there, 1,300 lineal feet of 8-foot diameter pipe will be spraylined with a geopolymer coating.
The 2016 sinkhole – approximately the size of a football field — along the Fraser- Clinton Township border occurred just eight days before Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller took office.
“I promised we’re never going to have another sinkhole in the Interceptor,” Miller said while monitoring the construction progress in person in recent days. “This is a very important project. It’s such a critically important part of our infrastructure here in Macomb County and the region.”
Miller added it’s vital to not ignore infrastructure but to invest in it in order to prevent collapses which not only can turn the lives of nearby property owners and businesses upside down — but also be costly to all utility rate-payers.
“‘Out of sight and out of mind’ cannot be the way we look at our infrastructure,” said the commissioner, adding a contract was recently awarded for the largest sewer inspection program in county history. “Just like when you build a house, you’ve got to maintain it.”
“Making sure this part of the Interceptor is secure could even be more important than what we repaired in 2017 because Segment 5 runs under the ITC corridor where all these transmission towers are, and it runs under the Red Run Drain,” Miller said.
The $28 million project will not result in higher sewer rates to system users. It is being paid for in part with a $12.5 million lawsuit settlement paid in November to Macomb County, after the Macomb Interceptor Drain Drainage District board chaired by Miller sued three contractors whose mistakes while working in the OaklandMacomb Interceptor sewer to the west caused conditions that eventually led to the 2016 sinkhole.
Approximately $6 million of the Segment 5 project is being paid from reserves. The remainder is financed via bonds with payments spread over a period of 20 years.
In addition to Fraser, Clinton Township and Sterling Heights, the 11 communities served by the Macomb Interceptor include: Utica, New Haven and Chesterfield, Harrison, Macomb, Lenox, Shelby and Washington townships along with Selfridge Air National Guard Base.