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Committee advances $12.9 million DWSD water-main contract amid questions about shutoffs and repairs
Summary
The Health and Safety Standing Committee advanced a roughly $12.9 million, two-year contract with Major Contracting to replace about 22,000 linear feet of water main; members pressed the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department for details about priorities, recent water main breaks and customer shutoffs.
The Detroit City Council Health and Safety Standing Committee on Feb. 2 sent a $12,898,000 Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) contract with Major Contracting to formal committee with a recommendation to approve after questioning from council members about where and when the work will be done.
The two-year contract, funded by State Revolving Fund (SRF) dollars, covers replacement and rehabilitation of about 22,000 linear feet of water main and includes work on known or discovered lead service lines, fire hydrants and other connected infrastructure. Markratia Welch, procurement and supply chain manager for DWSD, said Major was the lowest of six bidders and is a Detroit-certified business that has indicated it will assign roughly 51% Detroit-resident labor to the project.
“This contract is one of several water system improvement contracts that contributes to us replacing aged infrastructure throughout the city of Detroit,” Welch said.
The committee pressed DWSD leaders for more specifics about timing and neighborhood prioritization. DWSD Deputy Director Sam Smalley said the department selects projects based on an asset-management program that balances the probability of failure and the consequence of failure — prioritizing critical customers such as hospitals, schools, dialysis centers and major traffic routes.
“We base our capital investment based on risk,” Smalley said. “The assets that we have selected in these neighborhoods are the ones that are warrant of replacement or rehabilitation at this time to lower the overall risk for those respective neighborhoods.”
Council members also connected the contract discussion to concerns raised during public comment about water shutoffs. Cecily McClellan, a representative of We The People of Detroit, told the committee that DWSD cut service to "over 900 residents" in December, that about 400 had been restored and that the city’s Detroit Lifeline program no longer covers arrearages in the way it did during the COVID period.
Sm alley told the committee that DWSD is not conducting service interruptions during the current frigid temperatures because stopping flow could cause additional service-line damage, and he outlined the department’s ongoing emergency responses: about 56 water-main breaks citywide, roughly 150 locations receiving salting or ice removal, 11 main breaks being worked on around the clock and eight crews assigned to leak and ice removal.
“We are sparing no resources in trying to manage this frigid temperature,” Smalley said. “We are also getting assistance from DPW, GSD and the Great Lakes Water Authority.”
Vice Chair Denzel McCampbell and Member Mary Waters asked the department to provide a schedule of streets and a fuller plan of action for addressing flooding and repeated main breaks so the council and the public can see how repairs will be distributed across districts.
Smalley agreed to provide the requested scheduling information through the chair.
The committee approved sending the contract to the formal agenda with a recommendation to approve; the committee did not record a roll-call tally for the vote during the meeting minutes.
What’s next: The item will appear on the committee’s formal agenda for a final vote. DWSD agreed to provide a detailed schedule of streets and a report on recent shutoffs and Lifeline program activity for the committee’s follow-up.
