A ROUGH RIDE: Fire official cites bumpy Chicago Avenue for damage to truck

Motorists who travel Chicago Road between Van Dyke Avenue and Mound Road are familiar with the washboard-like feel of the pavement and the rough ride over the railroad tracks.

Now, Warren Fire Commissioner Skip McAdams is blaming road and rail conditions for damage incurred by a department fire truck recently.

Fire station four is located at 6361 Chicago Road across from the General Motors Technical Center.

According to McAdams, a shock tower and steering control were damaged last week. He believes a previous break to one of the shock towers in June was caused by the exceptionally rough railroad tracks and the recent damages to the other shock tower and steering control may have been incurred at that time also, but were undetected.

“This is just my opinion because I’m not an engineer, but my personal opinion is that back in June, prior to the temporary repairs that were done to the railroad tracks, we broke a shock tower and I think there was undiscovered damage to the other shock tower,” said McAdams.

Repairs were made to the truck over the weekend and McAdams confirmed it is back in service.

“The parts came in on Friday at about 4:30 and (Public Service Director Gus Ghanam) authorized overtime on Friday and Saturday and got it back in service Saturday afternoon,” said McAdams. “The truck was still under warranty, so everything was covered at no cost to the city.”

McAdams estimates that without the warranty, the parts and repairs would have cost between $15,000 and $20,000. The truck was purchased a year and a half ago for close to $700,000.

Warren City Engineer James VanHavermaat has been working with the railroad to get the tracks repaired. Any repairs to rail come under the Federal Railroad Administration guidelines and may not be completed by the city. After several months, the rail company performed a temporary repair a few weeks ago and there are plans for a permanent fix in 2021.

“Between the tracks there are panels and some of those were missing,” said VanHavermaat. “They came out and filled in with cold patch. At that time, I was told they would be doing permanent repairs next year and I’m trying to get more definitive information on a time schedule.”

While the cold patch solution is not perfect, VanHavermaat notes the rail surface is much improved. He has observed traffic crossing the tracks at upwards of 40 miles per hour and notes motorists are not having to slow to a crawl to cross the tracks anymore.

He says there is a pothole forming adjacent to the westbound side of the Chicago Road railroad tracks and has again contacted the railroad authorities to try and get a temporary fix on that as well.

“When those panels were missing it was very serious; it was deplorable,” said VanHavermaat.

The stretch of Chicago Road that is so rough, Councilman Garry Watts says it jarred loose the closet doors on his camper. Repaving is scheduled for 2021. VanHavermaat says the engineering is almost completed and contractor bids will be taken in the new year.

“The road had an asphalt cap put on and the underlying joints have popped through,” said VanHavermaat.

That stretch of Chicago Road will have to be torn out and totally rebuilt, which VanHavermaat estimates will take about four months and $3.5 million to complete. The project is not included in the 2020-21 budget but will be requested for the 202122 budget that Warren City Council is slated to approve next June.

“Once the budget is approved, we want to be able to immediately award the contract,” said VanHavermaat.