Lincoln Park Department of Public Services Director John Kozuh speaks at the Dec. 9 City Council meeting about a proposal for the retention basin pumping and electrical improvements.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
LINCOLN PARK – The City Council approved $1.65 million in American Rescue Plan Act money to authorize the Hennessey Engineering/Fishbeck team to provide design and engineering services for much needed retention basin improvements.
The Hennessey/Fishbeck team will provide procurement, design, bidding and construction phase engineering services for the retention basin facility pumping and electrical improvements.
Lincoln Park has a network of sewers and pump stations that manage the sanitary collection system, which discharges through the River Drive interceptor for treatment at the Downriver Utility Wastewater Authority treatment facility.
When heavy rain events occur, basements directly upstream of the city retention basin facility experience wastewater backup.
The River Drive intercept that feeds into the DUWA treatment facility has four feeder regulators: Applewood, River Drive, Farnham and Highland. The regulators control how much fluid enters the intercept.
If the wastewater capacity is more than DUWA allows, excess wastewater backs up into the collection systems for the Lincoln and Emmons pump stations, then flow by gravity to the city’s retention basin through a 60-inch diameter gravity-fed sewer pipe.
The project will restore the Lincoln and Emmons pump stations to each’s original design capacities.
In addition, the retention basin will replace its existing influent pumps with ones with a higher volume capacity. The control and monitoring systems for the pumps will be replaced to improve the facility’s operation and reliability.
The electrical generator load capacity will be increased to support the new pumps, and the incoming electrical services, the pad-mounted transformers, main switch gear and the volt-feeders will be sized to operate the six new pumps and the other system electrical components.
In addition, the retention basin’s hard-wired main control panel, the programmable logic controller, the input and output modules, the operator interface terminal, cellular communication equipment, automatic dialer and related equipment will be replaced.
At this time, no major building, process or site improvement are planned.
The Clean Water State Revolving Fund project planning documents will be submitted by May 1 to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.
Three-dimension scanning with LiDAR, light detection and ranging, will be used to scan the interior of the retention basin to support the design model.
The final design specifications will be submitted to city officials for review in February 2026, with bids awarded two to four months later. Construction may begin in June 2026, with completion slated for two years later.