Planning document for water project adopted
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ISHPEMING -- The Ishpeming City Council adopted the final planning document for a proposed water system improvements project during a special council meeting Tuesday.
The adoption allows the city to move forward with Michigan's Drinking Water State Revolving Fund program application after a public hearing with the purpose of receiving comments from residents of Ishpeming.
"It's an opportunity that you (city council) have to put in an application to see what we can get," Upper Peninsula Engineers and Architects project manager Chris Holmes said. "We still are the same as the sewer project that you guys have going on right now, that you have an opportunity later once that package is presented to you to say 'Hey, do we want it or do we not want it?'"
Holmes said the city council will not know until October what the package will look like.
"I can't tell you right now if it's zero percent grant, 50, 75," Holmes said.
He said after the package is presented in October, the city council can hold another meeting to proceed further.
The purpose of the project is to remove and replace aged and failing water infrastructure located in the city, with impacts including increased reliability of the water system.
In addition to the removal and replacement of aged and failing water infrastructure, project construction will include lead and galvanized water services, looping of dead-end water main (mostly cast iron), upgrades to the water tank (mostly security fencing)and associated appurtenances, according to the city's notice of the project plan public hearing.
The proposed project's estimated cost is $20 million.
During public comment regarding the project, Ishpeming resident Don Dakota asked the council about previous water projects and why the Eighth Addition of Ishpeming was done poorly compared to Empire Street.
"It's getting worse now because when it was done, and I watched it happen, things weren't compacted properly, they weren't done the way they should be done and a lot of the patches of pavement is failing now," Dakota said. "It's heaving up, it's dipping down."
City Manager Craig Cugini said that the Empire Street project was not funded through the same water system improvements project and funded with city funds paired with Michigan Department of Transportation roadway funds.
"The scope of this project may include areas that it runs along paved roadways or it may include areas that it does not run along the paved roadways and include security fencing around the water tower," Cugini said. "It includes connecting ends of lines where there (are) dead-end terminations and making a loop for pressure and securing some of that from freeze. So not all places along this line would include digging up a line and replacing pavement, but where it is funded and does include digging up and pulling out line pavement would follow."
For more information on the project, visit ishpemingcity.org/2023/05/notice-of-project-plan-public-hearing-water-system-improvements-project/.
Dreyma Beronja can be reached at 906-228-2500 ext. 548. Their email address is dberonj@miningjournal.net.