FeedsCouncil OK’s drain improvement cost
Romulus City Council members approved a $1.08 million budget amendment to the Junction subdivision project that will allow for storm drain enclosure improvements Monday night.
The amendment and contract change order allows the mayor and city clerk to execute contract change orders and price adjustments that do not exceed the agreed-upon amount with Tyger Excavating.
“All the money was already bonded for the project and we are making the changes to make the residents happy,” said Mayor Alan Lambert. “The ditches will not be so deep.”
These new funds will be used for the implementation and completion of the storm drain enclosure improvements according to the plans outlined by the city engineers at the special meeting prior to the council meeting.
Instead of ditches, the piping for the drainage will now be underground in swells, he said.
“We will have positive drainage for the first time in years,” Lambert said.
These swells will be filled halfway with gravel with the piping for water and the sewers underneath so that the pipes are not eliminated and will have a slight taper so they are not so deep, said Councilmen LeRoy Burcroff.
Following water main and other road improvements, ditches, which at some points are more than 6 feet deep, have been left uncovered, creating an eyesore, dangerous situations with children in the neighborhood and standing water which is a breeding grounds for mosquitoes and other insects.
Residents in the area complained at previous city council meetings about the ditches, leading to this change.
The residents wanted to fill the ditches, but positive drainage of the standing water had to be maintained, said Romulus Councilwomen Ellen Craig-Bragg. Covering the ditches was not originally part of the initial plan, but the concerns residents brought to council members prompted the effort to cover them.
“We will be meeting two goals—having positive drainage and improving the landscape for residents,” Craig-Bragg said.
At the special meeting Monday night, residents also brought new concerns to the council about part of the road being torn up because of the ongoing project, Burcroff said.
As a result, the goal is to have all of the swells filled, covered and sealed by winter and to have a primary layer of asphalt on the road to get the residents through the winter. Then in the spring of 2007, the city plans on re-doing the road and smoothing out the settling that resulted from the winter, he added.
