Wayne County Commission — Committee on Public Services, 5.20.2025
4:44PM May 20, 2025
Speakers:
Keywords:
Wayne County
emergency procurement
storm sewer
sinkhole prevention
geotechnical investigation
construction vendor
guardrail material
MDOT specifications
pedestrian bridge
landscape maintenance
pickleball courts
software upgrade
engineering design services
public services
commission approval.
Hi, Johnny Rhodes, Catherine Chung, executive Project Manager for Wayne County DPS
commissioners. Miss Catherine is the project manager on this particular project. She can get into all the specifics.
Here we go. We're good. Okay, go ahead.
Okay, so this was an emergency procurement contract that was needed for storm sewer and separation of culverts over there by Bellville lake. So we had notification on it. We acted on it, and then I will leave Miss Catherine to give you the specifics on the projects. Okay, go ahead.
So we, we did a site review. We found out there's three locations that were separated. So the the water that was supposed to drain through that pipe into Belleville Lake essentially was going directly into the ground. So essentially, what's happening there is the ground is softening and forming in the formation of a sinkhole. So we brought, we made a handful of phone calls to look for a design and engineering designer to be able to design the repairs and essentially do a topical analysis, topographical analysis, as well as a geotechnical investigation, to look at the soil the condition, to look at the slope, as well as see what the deterition is going to be. The design ended up taking about four to six weeks to do. We just completed design last week, and we are in the process of looking for what we've identified, a construction, uh, vendor to be able to complete the repairs.
Okay, so how long? How long will it be before they start doing the repairs? We are
we'll be ready once we start the we're working on the easement to be able to get access to given the slope angle, we can't. It's a really steep slope. We can't and given the size of the the storm sewer, we can't get there via barge. So what we're ending up doing is we have to build an access road from private property on to get to the storm sewer. We're working on that language right now to get an easement, a temporary easement. Once that's complete, we'll be able to do the second phase of this, which is the emergency procurement for the construction side.
It's like a complicated problem,
no, but it's it's under control.
Yeah, that's good. Any questions on this, yeah, go ahead and I didn't even acknowledge Commissioner Wilson is here joining us. Thank you. Obviously, this
is Van Buren Township, correct. I'm sorry, Commissioner al Wilson here part of my jurisdiction, Van Buren Township, uh, had no earthly idea that we had earthquake over there that. Yeah. Okay. Well, anyway, you trying to prohibit that, obviously. So what happened, I mean, is this, I heard some, some discussion about there was a flooding or something, what? What they got? So
we don't actually know the cause of the storm sewer? It could be it definitely wasn't an earthquake. These pipes are old. Facetious. I'm sorry, yeah, these pipes are old. I hope there was an earthquake that we didn't know about. But over time, ground moves things, things shift, concrete
pipes, they're separated,
in a nutshell, so I think, you know, I'm going with this, Steve. You know our friend over there in that area, he calls me every day, and he's always when it rains outside, it pours in his house, I guess. So, yeah, is this associated with this? Okay, okay, all right, okay. Thank you and Steve, keep up the good work. I appreciate it. We gonna become best friends, man. I appreciate it.
All right, Commissioner Clemente,
so is this, I don't know any about this area, but it's a so is it closed off right now? So people, is it a road that this is done or like for public safety? What I What are you doing for? There's
barricades everywhere. Thank you. I just wanted to make, yeah, definitely
having anyone go in a sinkhole. So, so did the sinkhole actually happen? Or you're preventing
a sinkhole? Is that preventing it is the ground is softening, and that could be the reason why the storm sewer essentially broke. The ground is softening. There's not an actual like sinkhole, like you see in the movies, but that's that's essentially what we're trying to prevent. More importantly, we're trying to prevent that entire slope from going into Bellville lake.
So it's creating a void. Pretty much, once the discharge, once the pipe separated, it's draining out there, it's creating a void. And that's what we're trying. To get a handle on it before it gets to be really bad. Yeah, so
part of the construction will be to stabilize the slope, in addition to fixing the storm sewer, of course. Okay,
sounds good. Any other questions? Okay, thank you. I don't think you're
I think I got the second. You
do have a second, okay? Madam Clerk, item
two, requesting commission approval of a three year purchase order with two one year options to renew with action traffic maintenance two, furnished guardrail beams, parts and accessories for the department of public services, roads division on an as needed basis.
Okay, so this particular contract commissioners, once again, Steve shad, division director, road maintenance. This is for guardrail material. I mean, besides the point that the prices have gone way, way high, strikes are happening more often than usual. So this is pretty much, you know, that probably you're thinking, Well, why did the price go up so high? It's been increase in prices also increase in number of hits, you know, from previous but, you know, and a lot of things have changed to commissioners now that MDOT has changing the specification on some of these guardrails. You know, the end points, the I beams, the rail itself, so that all you know, gets taken under consideration. So that's why we're asking
for this. So when you say hits, you mean people hitting the guardrails. So
I can give you a particular example. Auto drive just near and 10. I've replaced that twice already, at $16,000 a pop.
So you said an increase. People are just driving crazy because it's warm weather every month.
Okay? I mean, we can't put concrete barrier that becomes a huge liability, yeah, but, but people are this particular location. People are swerving off the roadway almost into people's lawns. They've knocked down trees. I mean, like I said, this is my second installation, and they knocked both of those down. And it's stuff like that. You know, there's a waterway you need a culvert over there to prevent from people hitting it and going down in the water. So it's, it's, it's real critical and important that and it's high speed and it's high speed.
Go ahead, just your video. Thank you, Madam Chair Steve, these guardrails, they're basically made of metal, right? Steel? Am I just thinking differently here? Have I seen somewhere where they have rubber wrapped around some of these guardrails? Is there such a thing or maybe not on
guard? Or you're probably thinking attenuators for impact purposes. You see that in the beginning of the freeway or on the ramp as you rip in, just for impact and collision purposes. But these guardrails are made out of steel. You know? They have I beam posts every 10 feet, or every seven feet they're bolted on. And they also got flare ends, you know, they curl like this at the ends. So
is there usually damage to the car when they hit these,
oh, well, imagine, are
they getting tickets? They're
coming at such high speed. Commissioner is just ain't no telling. You know, there's 50 miles an hour, and they're smacking that dead on, okay? You know, it's basically just leveling
Mr. Clemente.
So once a guard rail is hit, like it depends on impact. I mean, do you have to rate them? And, you know, go around, can they stay up if they've been hit once, or how?
I mean, once we get we have word of it, then usually we'll put it on the list. And it depends how critical it is, okay, you know, we'll act on that. You know another thing too, Commissioner is that, you know, it also protects polls in your in your area. We won't even get in that. But you know, we've, they've knocked out posts and lamps and everything else with it so
well, hopefully someone's getting tickets with this trying to prevent that craziness. Any other Go ahead. Commissioner
Wilson, I'm sorry, so I have a voice. I don't turn the mic on, but I guess I got a voice. But no vote. Okay? Director I just just want to know, is there any type of signage in that area that talks about, you know, danger falling rock, or there's something to kind of warn potential culprit from slamming into the guardrail that's going to cost us an extensive, uh. Let
me just say this, in this particular location, we've had signs and signs and signs. Every sign has been knocked down. Yeah, so we said, okay, and then we'll just go ahead and we'll put in guardrail after an intensive study, because sometimes they could be a liability. But you know, we went ahead and we secured that guardrail, you know, and but still, people on eight mile, they drive real wild. And on outer drive, they drive real wild.
Okay, yeah, camera, that was my next question is, I mean, obviously that's gonna be a little more expensive, right, with cameras in the area to kind of detect what the we could what the driving habits are of certain individuals, or whether we have recidivism, those that are repeat offenders.
We're talking about it. Nothing has been implemented. Okay, what city is this in? Thank you. This is Detroit, but it happens everywhere. It's not just singing out Detroit or anything, okay, it's just those kind of areas, just those areas that have high probability or high risk. You know, like I said, Commissioner Clemente has got areas in her division and,
okay, don't let him off the auto drive, alright, okay,
do a little campaign. Yeah, thank you. Yes, you're welcome anything else from our group. Okay, thank you. Next item,
item three, requesting commission approval of Amendment One to a one year construction contract with the two year option to renew with MK Construction Code, pedestrian bridge of the middle branch of the Rouge River, 2500 feet south of the hinds drive and Ann Arbor trail intersection in the city of Westland. Okay. Thank you. Good morning.
Good morning. Elizabeth Isler, Chief of planning Wayne County Parks, yes, this is just to extend the contract to complete the project. There's no change in the dollars. No change in the dollars. It's almost done. It just needed to do restoration for spring.
Okay, great. So it will be in use,
yeah, should be any time. Okay, just they need to get in, get this contract approved, and then they'll get back in and finish their paving in front of the bike path to make put that back where you know to be safe, and then it's just basically the ground to the bridge, and then after the bridge to get that all graded out and reseeded. Okay, great
questions on this. Okay, next item,
Item four, requesting commission approval of a one year professional services contract with four one year options to renew with United landscape to provide landscape maintenance services at buildings, shelters, athletic fields, comfort stations and other active use and recreation areas throughout the Wayne County park system on an as needed basis.
Yep. So this is just supplementing our maintenance staff the beds that we have at Elizabeth Park, at the Chateau tourist Lodge, our Nankin Admin Building, and then we have gardens at crosswinds, so things that they don't typically handle, we have this group do for us. Okay,
great, and they're on a schedule with this. Any questions on this item? Okay, next item you have another one, two more. Two more. Yeah.
Item five, requesting commission approval of Amendment One to an addendum to a cooperative agreement with WCI contractors to continue to remove and reconstruct the Elizabeth Park loop return road and the city of Trenton.
And this is no change in the dollar amount as well.
Yep, just extending it to complete the project. Okay? And that'll be done this year. Yes, so, yeah, they'll, as soon as this gets approved, there's a little bit engineering work that needs to be done. And then once that's completed, then they'll start hopefully, I would say this summer.
Okay, yeah, right, but it's still usable in that it's just area, actually, that
loop that is closed right now. I don't know if you've been to Elizabeth Park, but they've got it used you have to leave the park to then turn around and come back in. And that was closed like I don't know. You might remember people live downriver a long time ago to prevent cruising, which we've decided people still do that, but not at the intensity level that they used to. So we're letting people actually legally turn around and keep going back into the park if they, you know, want to.
Yeah, that's the gravel area right now, and it's going to be paved over, right? Okay, right. So
people could, could going, that's, it's a great idea. Thank you. Okay, great,
yeah So all right, safer, safer, yeah. Any other questions on this? Okay, next item, item six,
requesting commission approval of Amendment One to an addendum to a cooperative agreement with WCI contractors to continue to convert to basketball. Course into one court and two pickleball courts at Warren Dale park in the city of Dearborn heights. And
this is no change in the dollar amount as well, yep, just to get it done. Yep, I'm sure people are wanting those pickleball courts. That's what I keep hearing. Yeah, very popular. Um, so when, when do you think this is all going to be completed this year? Also this year. Yeah,
that, I mean, they were ready to go. We just ran out of the you know, by the time this was approved, it was too late to start. So it'll be this summer. Also. Okay,
good Commissioner Clemente, is
this a county park, or is it a, oh, it's a county park. Okay, Warren Dale, is Warren? Okay? I was trying to get part of, Oh, very good. Okay, thank
you, Dearborn heights, thank you. Okay, so that's Warren Dale, yep. Okay, great. Thank you. Thanks. All right, next item, item
seven, requesting commission approval of amendment two to an agreement which consists of an addendum and master subscription agreement with two when your options to renew with brightly software to enable department of facilities management and planning to upgrade from the asset essentials core into an asset essentials enterprise program to allow each county building to exist on a separate site.
Okay. Great. Good morning.
Good morning commissioners. This is the Introduce yourself. I'm sorry you forgot about that. Gregory Hearst, Director, facilities management and planning. So this is the software that we use for our work order, for all of our maintenance for CJC and all other properties that we maintain for the for the county. What we're looking to do is, once we went live with the program and we started really diving into the data of how much we're spending, how many hours were working on the different projects. But then we realized that there were limitations to the current software, one of which the package doesn't allow us to parse out all of the different buildings. So we're really managing a lot of data collectively, where we want to be able to manage and really see a little more granular as to what we're how we're actually managing and maintaining each additional each building throughout the county. So it allows us a little more insight into the data of what we're doing and what we're spending, how much time we're spending on maintenance for all of our buildings. Additionally, it allows us a more robust reporting portion of the software. So it's morning, it really just builds on the reporting strategy as well. So currently, if there's a report that's not already developed as more of kind of a canned, you know, software component, we would have to contact the vendor in order to ask them to build out additional reports. Well, this is allows us access do that on our own. And so as we're becoming more familiar with the product, we realize what we don't have and what we need. And in order to achieve that goal, we have to go to a higher subscription, and so we're just asking for the remainder of this contract to move to a better version, so it allows us more insight and access into the work that we're doing.
So each building would have then have its own separate site, like correct separate information, so you wouldn't have have to get a hold of them and extract
currently, it's set up as one Wayne County site, and then we have to have sub sets for buildings, which, as you can imagine, all of the work orders for all of the buildings that my department manages. We have to then filter what we'll be able to do is to be more granular, and each building will be its own function. And then so it's just a very it's a very arduous process right now to really kind of parse out what we're doing at each building. And so it gives us more insight. And then the reporting is so much more robust that once we achieve that strategy of having separate sites, the way of extracting the data is going to be so much easier as well. Good.
It's good the capability. Is there any questions on this? Okay, great. Thank you absolutely. Next step,
Item eight, requesting commission approval of Amendment One to a three year contract with the one year option to renew with wait trim associates to allow services during and post construction related to professional engineering design services for the Baseline Road bridge replacement over CX X railroad between nobody road and Griswold Street In the city of Northville.
Okay. Yay. Good morning everyone. This is the Director of Engineering and engineer this project, as you know, it's not something new. We are anticipating construction start at the beginning of the year, you know. So this way we don't interrupt traffic during, you know, shopping season. So. We all have our designer trim. We want to as a practice to keep them on board for any questions that might arise during construction, and to do any testing required by MDOT after the project is completed. So
in January or so, they're going to be working underneath, underneath, yes, they would
be, they will be removing this. This bridge is not a bridge replacement. Is just a deck replacement, right? So there will be removed, start removing, you know, they were closer to traffic. And then they have do some logistics stuff, because we have a railroad cross, you know, underneath it. So they have to coordinate all this work with the railroad too, for the right of entry and the flag person. So yes, I mean, that's the anticipation after they secure everything, then they can start the demo
when you close a bridge, which I know you had to do that many times during Wayne County, how much of a notice do you give the people in that area before you actually close it down,
yeah, typically, you know? I mean, the community knows about this. So, yeah, in typically, so most of these projects, like construction projects, we have minimum two weeks for the press release to go out, you know, but we already before we close the road. Also, two weeks before that, we put these changeable message boards on both sides this way. Also we want you know travelers that road construction is coming.
Okay, sounds good. Thank you. Any questions on this one? Okay, Madam Clerk. Next one item
nine, requesting commission approval of Amendment One to a three year contract with the one year option to renew with wait trim associates to allow services during and post construction related to professional engineering design services for the elbow drive over elbow canal bridge replacement between East River Road and Elba Island drive in grossell Township.
Commissioner Palmera. Any questions, just happy. Okay, do you want to tell us anything about this? This
is the same thing. Yeah, we want to retain with the trim you know, to be available for us to answer any questions that might arise during construction and do the load rating after we build it to submit it to M death. Okay, thank you. You're welcome any
questions on this. All right, thank you. Thank you. Okay, next item, oh, we have to vote. We
have a motion by Commissioner Kinloch and a support by Commissioner Bay dune for items one through nine, and item one being a receive and file item.
And can you also call the roll please, or the vote roll?
Okay. Thank you. I can't seem to vote on this, so that's why I wanted that. All right. Next item
F, such other matters as may be properly submitted before the
committee. Heard of none. Next item
G, public comments,
anyone here in this room that would like to address the committee on public services? Okay, do we have any emails? Madam Clerk, no emails are received. Okay. Do you see anybody on Zoom? There's anybody on Zoom or on the phone that would like to address this? Please do. Please do so and you have two
minutes, there are no hands raised on Zoom. Okay, Seeing
and hearing none. Next item. Adjournment. Adjournment. All right. Board, all right. We are now adjourned. Thank you, everyone.