City Officials Taking Steps To Avoid Another Fraser Sinkhole Incident

FRASER (WWJ) - While officials in Macomb County are beginning to see the "light at the end of the tunnel" when it comes to the Fraser sinkhole, they are also taking what they've learned and applying it to prevention measures.

Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller said they're coming up with a maintenance program to begin taking care of any problems before they get worse -- and she hopes others continue to do the same.

"Inspecting their underground and managing their underground infrastructure so you don't have these kinds of incidents that have been out of sight and out of mind," Miller told WWJ. "It does have a huge impact on our quality of life and economic prosperity."

Miller added that there will now be regular maintenance and a "capital improvement program."

Crews will begin replacing the collapse with brand new pipe, which should last 200-300 years, received this week.

Twenty Fraser families were temporarily displaced, three homes were condemned, and roads were shut down because of the sinkhole that formed when a sewer line collapsed on Christmas Eve.

In late May, the crews began the next phase of the sinkhole project which was to dig down 60 feet to replace the interceptor's broken pipe. The excavation of the 300-foot by 28-foot shaft began right after Memorial Day and lasted about a month.

The entire sinkhole project is going to cost $75 million to complete.

All repair work is expected to be completed by September 30. The target for the re-construction of 15 Mile Road and other restoration work is around Thanksgiving.