'No major snafus': Millions' worth of water infrastructure upgrades underway in St. Clair

ST. CLAIR — Two massive multimillion-dollar infrastructure projects will soon be underway in the city of St. Clair this summer — part of a yearslong push to expand water capacity in the area and timed ahead of a separate construction nearby to rebuild Range and Yankee roads into a roundabout.

The first major project to upgrade the city’s main water treatment plant on Adams Street and expand its waterfront shorewell pumping station began this spring.

St. Clair Superintendent Quentin Bishop said things are on track to be completed in 2025, bringing an additional million gallons in capacity to the city’s system.

“We actually host weekly progress meetings, and we’ve no major snafus to report,” Bishop said by phone on Tuesday. “What they’re doing at the shorewell pump station, they needed to reinforce the building that’s going to be expanded, and in order to do that, they needed to drill down 80 feet to pour foundations. I’m fascinated with the engineering expertise of these people to be working so deep underground so close to a shoreline. And with all the infrastructure that’s already in place, how well they’re able to maneuver the equipment. … I was just tipping my hat to the engineers and work group out there.”

That project, which will total well over $8 million in cost after initial estimates surprised officials, comes in tandem with another set of new facilities — namely, water main replacements and the erection of a water tower and booster station.

This second development is slated to kick off in the coming weeks around the city’s old industrial park that’s now home to the expanded Magna Electric Vehicle Structures plant. Through a local development finance authority, or LDFA, district founded near Range and Yankee, the city initiates the engineering and bids for the work, while a separate board under a four-county jurisdictional group oversees the district’s projects itself.

The water main, tower, and booster work have a similar timeline as the first project to be completed next year.

How did this all come about?

According to plans briefed in an update to St. Clair City Council members in January, the water treatment plant and pump station work went to bid in June 2023 and included some initial water main work east of South Range Road and Haas Drive, which connects to Yankee Road.

The need for improvements at St. Clair water facilities, particularly its main plant, has been a subject for discussion among officials going back several years.

As of early 2022, estimates put work to bring the plant up to modern-day standards and increase capacity at an amount approaching $10 million, and a $970,000 federal earmark was announced to help make a dent in the shorewell station upgrades.

Within the last couple of years, local officials formally established the LDFA to help support the second project through tax increment financing. An incentive package from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation was announced in late 2022 to include a $3.6 million grant to support the new infrastructure in connection to Magna’s plant expansion.

Bishop said this week, that the water main replacement was originally estimated to cost $950,000, the booster station $2.4 million, and the tower, or elevated water tank, $4.1 million.

Bids have been completed for the second project, Bishop said, though details were being finalized. He said all the necessary land around Range and Yankee had been obtained for the work, as well.

“We were within a few hundred thousand dollars of the estimated engineers’ cost, which … we were pleasantly surprised by,” Bishop said. “Because our original estimate came in September of 2022, and we anticipated a much higher bid. It was just a couple hundred thousand dollars. As opposed to what happened to us with the water treatment plant, which came back almost $7 million overestimate.”

During their June 17 meeting, Bishop told council members that they’d learned a federal award of $700,000 “to help offset cost of our water infrastructure projects” had received early approvals. He later said it’d made it through committee and they still had to wait to ensure they checked all the eligibility boxes, but that he expected the boost to go primarily toward the water tower.

Mark Parsley, an engineer for the consulting firm Fishbeck, told St. Clair officials in January they’d seen success with a revolving fund application for the state with a nearly $3 million grant to support the water treatment plan upgrades.

Council members have previously agreed to take out two sets of bonds, borrowing funds to cover the remainder of its infrastructure projects.

What about the roundabout?

Bill Hazelton, managing director for the St. Clair County Road Commission, said earlier this week they were still working out a construction schedule and contract with the Michigan Department of Transportation to rebuild Yankee and Range into a roundabout.

“But we should have one in the next few weeks,” he said.

That nearly $1.3 million project was reportedly being funded with $540,000 from the road commission with another $410,000 coming from road millage funds and $750,000 in funds from a federal safety grant.

Since first seeking the grant in 2022, road commission officials have cited a rise in accidents at the intersection, particularly since the original Magna build, with needing to help redirect and improve the flow of traffic with a roundabout.

The intersection has seen two to three collisions a year, according to the Southeastern Michigan Council of Governments. Though most have been limited to property damage crashes, a 29-year-old St. Clair Township man was killed following a crash last August.

As of this spring, construction as expected to start this summer.

Although they’ll rely primarily on partial road closures during construction, Hazelton said, “Yankee will be shut down at times going through there, but Range Road, we’re going to maintain one direction. … Southbound Range will be maintained in the area. So, if you’re coming from Marysville to St. Clair, south, but if you’re northbound, you’ve got to detour through the city of St. Clair and head back up M-29 to Davis (Road).”

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com.