Planning commission recommends six-year capital improvement plan to City Council

The Eastpointe Planning Commission voted unanimously Jan. 23 to recommend the city's six-year capital improvement plan (called the infrastructure maintenance plan in the presentation) to City Council, following a presentation from the city's engineering consultant and a public question about whether federal earmarked money is tied to a specific road design.

Ryan Kern, with engineering firm Anderson, Eckstein and Westrick, told the commission the plan lays out projects the city expects to design or construct over the next six years and organizes them by funding source: major streets, local streets, water and sanitary sewer.

The plan lists a federal earmark of $44,380,000 to assist with the third phase of the 9 Mile Road reconstruction, covering Tuscany to I-94; Kern said that earmark will be administered through the Michigan Department of Transportation and is general to the project, not tied to a specific design. He also said earlier phases and other major-street projects are receiving federal-aid assistance that covers roughly 81.85 percent of construction costs, with the city matching from Act 51 funds the city receives from the state.

A resident, Jennifer Nicholas, asked whether the federal funds are tied to the five-lane reconstruction design or to an alternative '2road diet' design. Kern said the city is still in design and that MDOT and SEMCOG are reviewing the traffic study; the agencies are expected to advise within weeks whether the city can proceed with a road-diet configuration. Kern said the city will not begin construction until there is a definite decision on design and that the federal funding would remain available if the agencies determine a road diet is acceptable.

Kern gave a project timeline for the 9 Mile corridor: the contractor for the previously bid phase will start storm-sewer work in March and expects to finish that phase in August; the third phase (Tuscany to I-94) is scheduled for construction in 2026. The consultant also described a number of other major-street and local-street items in the plan: concrete patching on Hayes Road (design in 2026, estimated at $539,600), a $3,000,000 state earmark to reconstruct 10 Mile between Hays and Flox (county right-of-way; no city cost expected for the earmarked amount), and a heavier rehabilitation of 10 Mile slated for 2028 with an estimated cost of about $4,820,000 to be shared among Macomb County, Eastpointe and Roseville.

On local streets, Kern said the city budgets roughly $700,000 a year for an annual pavement patching program and $150,000 per year as a typical Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) match when eligible neighborhoods are awarded CDBG funding. Joint sealing and pavement-marking funds are budgeted cyclically, with an approximate $150,000 per year allocated when local streets are scheduled for sealing.

Kern described the city's water projects in detail. Eastpointe received a $10,000,000 earmark for lead-service-line replacements; the consultant said the city has replaced nearly 2,000 lead services to date and expects to finish the program by summer, with an estimated 150'to'100 services remaining. Kern said the city secured a 20-year low-interest loan (about 1.85 percent) for earlier drinking-water projects and also obtained roughly $8.6 million in federal grant money, plus a $900,000 state loan, for a recent large replacement project.

Kern said the sanitary-sewer program has completed citywide cleaning and televising of more than 93 miles of sewer, ranked defects, and begun prioritized rehabilitation. The city budgeted $750,000 per year for sewer rehabilitation and plans to apply for a state revolving fund loan for more than $5 million in additional rehab work; that program may include loan forgiveness or grants if awarded.

After the presentation, a motion to recommend sending the plan to City Council passed on a roll-call vote. The commission's roll call recorded an affirmative vote from each member present (Miss Moody; Mr. Sasek; Ms. Hall Raiford; Mr. Stokes; Ms. Zielinski; and the chair). The motion was recorded as approved.

Why it matters: the plan compiles federally supported major-street reconstructions, a multi-million-dollar program to replace lead service lines ahead of EPA timelines, ongoing sewer rehabilitation and multi-year local-street maintenance. Those projects affect construction schedules, neighborhood disruptions and the city's capital budget; the plan will now go to City Council for review and final approval.

Next steps: City Council will receive the commission's recommendation and consider the plan and its funding assumptions. The consultant said MDOT/SEMCOG's review of the 9 Mile traffic study should conclude within a couple of weeks, after which design decisions (including whether a road diet is feasible) will be finalized.