Wixom Road closed for installation of sewer

NOVI — A portion of Wixom Road is closed to through traffic while a sewer is being installed under the road.

Wixom Road, from Birchwoods Drive to Braeburn Lane, was shut down Feb. 5 and will remain closed for approximately four weeks.   

The closure is a result of the ongoing Wixom Road Sanitary Sewer Replacement and Pump Station Improvements Project, which is being done to accommodate existing flows through two pump stations on Wixom Road and to upsize the sewer between them, according to a press release. The sewer replacement part of the project is halfway completed, and it is expected to take approximately six more weeks to finish the remaining sewer installation, the release states.

“There is nothing wrong with (the sewer). We are upsizing and we are maintaining it so that in future we don’t come into a problem,” said Indrani Bhattacharya, the project coordinator for Novi’s Water and Sewer Division.

During the closure, traffic will be detoured from 11 Mile Road to Beck Road to 10 Mile Road, and vice versa.

The area affected is primarily residential. However, there is one business in the area, Suncrest Senior Living, and the owner, registered nurse Amie Pagano, expressed concern over how the closure could affect response times if they should need to call 911. She said the construction has caused quite a bit of traffic backup, and she worries that it could delay emergency services. Pagano said they have been dealing with construction on the road for a while now, as it had been down to one lane of traffic prior to the total closure. Pagano said that construction delays have been adding five to 10 minutes to her staff’s daily commute to and from work.

“We are 24/7 and can’t shut down. It is what it is, but a friend of mine actually posted a question to me and said, ‘You know (what happens) if you have to call 911?’ And I said, ‘Well, that is going to be the tricky part of it,’ because we take care of seniors. We are a licensed facility. That’s the interesting part of it. We haven’t had to (call 911) yet. But if we do, that would be a little nerve-wracking,” said Pagano.

According to Cmdr. Jason Meier, of the Novi Police Department, the closure should not affect emergency response times to the area. He said that both the Novi Police Department and the Novi Fire Department have already discussed  the situation and planned alternative routes to the area should there be an emergency.

Pagano said the facility has also been dealing with the loud noise caused by the construction site’s generator. She said that it doesn’t bother the patients too much, as many of them are hard of hearing, but it is very loud for the staff.

“We just got to try to be patient and hope that it ends soon. It’s all we can do,” Pagano said.