Major water main replacement planned for section of Muir Road

GROSSE POINTE FARMS — An aging water main is getting replaced in advance of roadwork this fall.

The Grosse Pointe Farms City Council voted unanimously in favor of a project to replace a water main on Muir Road, between McMillan Road and Kercheval Avenue. The main, which City Manager Shane Reeside said dates back to the 1940s, ranges from 4 inches in diameter to 6 inches in diameter. It will be replaced by an 8-inch main, which officials said will be better suited for customer demand and firefighting.

“We thought it was prudent … to replace that section of main,” Reeside said. “It supports the hospital. It supports some of our local businesses.”

The water main services the Hill business district, which includes Henry Ford Medical Center — Grosse Pointe. Henry Ford Medical Center — Grosse Pointe is the name for the medical facility that includes the former Cottage Hospital, at 159 Kercheval Ave., and the former Pierson Clinic, at 131 Kercheval Ave.

The project, including engineering and a 10% contingency, is slated to cost an amount not to exceed $637,802.90.

City Councilman Lev Wood asked if this was the only water main work the Farms was doing this year. Reeside said it was.

“It’s pretty sizeable,” Wood acknowledged.

The work was recommended by the city’s engineers with Hubbell, Roth & Clark Inc. In an April 1 memo from HRC Project Manager Eddie Zmich to Reeside and Farms Water Superintendent Scott Homminga, Zmich said that Plymouth-based Bidigare Contractors Inc., the contractor for the work, has maintained almost all its unit prices from 2023, “with only small increases for a couple of items in response to the industry-wide higher material costs.” Given current market conditions, Zmich wrote that they believed it was “reasonable to extend Bidigare’s contract” into 2024.

Homminga explained that this project is a continuation of the water main replacement program that Bidigare Contractors undertook for the Farms from 2020 to 2023.

“Because the water main lies next to the curb on Muir Road, we will be completing the project before the street is repaved in the fall,” Homminga wrote in a memo to the council.