Overview
The Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) is responsible for operating and maintaining five water treatment plants, one wastewater plant and associated water transmission and wastewater collection infrastructure serving 126 municipalities and nearly 4 million people in the metro-Detroit area
Process
A recent break in one of the mains left nearly 300,000 customers without safe water for almost a week. To avoid this issue in the future, GLWA proposed to develop a connecting water main to close this gap and provide a loop for system redundancy and reliability.
In early 2019 GLWA awarded this project to the Brown and Caldwell and DLZ team. As a principal member of this Team, DLZ provides:
- Design and Management Assistance.
- Topographical and Property Surveying Services.
- Geotechnical Services for the project.
- Ecological Services related to wetlands and endangered species.
- Hazardous Materials and Contamination Investigation.
- Maintenance of Traffic Design
- Tree Restoration and Landscape Services
- Resident Project Representation
The overall project began with the design a short 24-inch transmission main in 14 Mile Road between M-5 and Novi Road to address a redundancy gap in this area. DLZ performed the topographical survey, geotechnical drilling and reporting, ecological Services related to an EGLE Joint Permit Application, and a short Phase I Environmental Report. DLZ lead the efforts in obtaining MOT permit approval by the Road Commission for Oakland County (RCOC) and is currently providing Resident Project Representation on this segment of water main.
Concurrent to this initial design work, a detailed route study was performed reviewing potential routes causing the least impact to the surrounding communities. After considering many factors the final route was established to generally follow I-275, Meadowbrook Road, 13 Mile Road, and M-5. Upon establishing the route for construction, DLZ performed a desk top review for potential ecological resources and a field review to evaluate all sites of potential environmental impacts. DLZ performed stream assessments and wetland delineations.