GARFIELD TOWNSHIP — The Garfield Township Board in Grand Traverse County approved a $1.6 million plan for short-term repairs to sewer infrastructure under South Airport Road.
Last month, part of the sewer line under the road cracked and released more than 20,000 gallons of sewage into the Boardman River.
South Airport Road is a vital crossing for people living and working in Grand Traverse County.The sewer break caused a temporary closure and concerns about the longevity of the infrastructure.
“There is a real apparent concern that we’re going to continue to see this happen,” said Jennifer Graham, Director of Engineering with Traverse City-based firm Gourdie-Fraser.
Without repairs, the board and engineers say there is a heightened chance of failure.
Around 70,000 cars pass over South Airport Road each day, up from about 45,000 before the collapse of the Beitner Bridge.
Graham says the sewer pipe is only four and a half feet below the road and may have warped due to years of increasing traffic.
“The force main itself originally was under South Airport Road. Before we had five, six lanes, it was two lanes,” she said. “It was in a green belt, and then over time the road expanded, and ultimately that force main was under the road.”
Garfield Township Supervisor Joe McManus says the project should be completed in October and that traffic disruptions will be minimal.
The work also involves repairing about 600 feet of road that was weakened with last month’s sewer break.
“The actual boring of the new sewer main underground will take estimated about three days, two to three days to complete that, and the road repair — only a day or two to to cut up and then repair that portion,” McManus said.
The approved project is separate from a long-term plan for South Airport Road, which is being studied by a committee that includes Grand Traverse County.
McManus says it would likely be a minimum of five years before those plans are implemented.
“We know what happened this spring with the flooding and the weakening of the roads, so we are going to coordinate these repairs with the steering committee’s plans to make sure that the repairs we do now are are not in the way or disruptive to that process,” he said.