Project Update

Skip to current work areas.

 

 

The Footing Drain Disconnection Program began in October 2001. Since then a large number of homeowners have participated in the program.

  • 1569 have been notified about the need to disconnect property's footing drains from the sanitary sewer.
  • 1543 of those homeowners have arranged for the initial home inspection
  • 1461 homes have completed all of the program steps.
  • 800 have returned program and contractor feedback to the project management team. Contractor Feedback Report

Schedule - The citywide project is proceeding in a few phases.

Step 1 is planning and area selection which is done by the city engineers and planners. Planning for the project resulted in the following division of target areas for the project. (Program Schedule Map)

  • Priority 1A homes - Homes within the 5 study neighborhoods that have chronic sewer backups into their basements and sanitary sewer system capacity problems, and their immediate neighbors. 99% of affected homes have completed the program.
  • Priority 1B homes - Homes elsewhere in the city where local sanitary sewer capacity problems were suspected to cause sewage backups into basements, and their immediate neighbors. 99% of affected homes have gone through the program.
  • Priority 2A homes - Homes upstream of the Priority 1A homes. Essentially homes whose footing drains were contributing and causing the sanitary sewer backups into the downstream homes' basements. This is the area that the program is currently working in.
  • Priority 2B homes - The rest of the city.

Step 2 is for the city hired directional drilling contractor to install a shallow 6" HDPE sump pump collection system called curb drain in the lawn extension. Affected areas are notified by door hangers a few days prior to construction. The contractor restores affected areas in the lawn extension and occasionally sidewalk and driveway aprons.

Step 3 is when groups of homeowners are invited into the program usually by receiving an informational packet and invitation to open neighborhood meetings, usually at a local school. The city hired construction management team helps the homeowners through the process of getting city subsidized funds for the project and getting the work complete. Usually homeowners get anywhere from 5-10 months to complete the program and the invitation to the neighborhood meeting may be more than a year after the collection system was installed in the lawn extension.

Current Work Areas

Currently the construction management team is working with homeowners on Steeplechase, Churchill, WWiltshire, Blaney, Tudor, Dicken and Eton. Over the last 2 years the directional drilling contractor has installed the curb drain collection system in the following areas that have not been brought into the program as of yet.

Morehead study area

  • Mershon N of Delaware, Delaware W of Mershon and, Winstead Ct
  • Wembley Ct, Chaucer Dr and Ascot Rd area with Lans Way at Worthington Pl.
  • Courts south of Morehead between Churchill and Seventh (Dundee, Mershon, Newbury, Picadilly and Seventh)

Glen Leven study area

  • Woodland, Kirtland, Marian and Glen Leven
  • Parts of Dunmore, Barrington, Waverly, Sanford and Hanover
  • Area roughly encompassed by going from Scio-Church to S Maple, to Tudor Dr, to Dicken Dr, to Kent, St to Waltham Dr, to Covington Drback to Scio Church. (link to google maps)

Current curb drain collection system installation.

Updated 11/3/2009

Curb drain was installed on Alhambra Dr, Coronada Dr and Las Vegas Dr through the summer. The areas disturbed we restored, but may need additional attention in Spring 2010. Curb Drain construction under the current contract is completed and almost closed out. There may be a few intermittent areas that will be in need of additional lawn restoration once spring 2010 comes around and those will be addressed then.

Updated 1/23/09

After work concluded in the Dartmoor study area (Norfolk Ave and Suffolk Ave), the contractor completed drilling and pipe connections on Ascot Rd., Chaucer Dr., Wembley Ct., Worthington Ct, and Lans Way.  Any necessary restoration will be completed in the spring. 

The current work area is south of Morehead Dr. on Dundee Dr., Mershon Dr, Newbury Ct., Picadilly Cir., and Seventh St.  The drilling and pipe connections have been completed on Newbury Ct., Picadilly Cir., and Seventh St.  Dundee Dr. and Mershon Dr. should be completed by the end of spring  2009.  There is one street cut scheduled for the spring to tie a curb drain pipe into a manhole on Picadilly Cir., but most pipes were directionally drilled and therefore, restoration will be minimal.  The contractor will do any necessary grass and concrete restoration in the spring.

Updated 8/5/08

All construction, cleanup and restoration should be completed in the Kent, Dicken, Tudor and Eton Ct area. The curb drain construction is currently ongoing in areas just south of Scio Church Rd in the Morehead area. Most of the curb drain installations are completed on Delaware, Mershon and Winstead. The curb drain contractor still has some additonal lawn restoration to complete. Some additional curb drain will be installed on Welsh Ct and a few additonal pipes on Churchill and Blaney over the next two weeks.

After that the curb drain installation will begin just north west of there in Glen Leven and parts of theMorehead sanitary sewer distrcit on Scio Chu rch, Covington, Waltham, Brampton Ct, Agincourt St and Windsor.

Updated 6/18/08

There was a slight change in scheduling by the installation contractor for the current area and they were further behind the driller than anticipated. The directional drilling subcontractor finished drilling in curb drain pipe on Kent, Dicken, Tudor and Eton Ct around June 6th. The crew doing the tie-ins of the curb drain and installing the individual connections finished off the final installation and restoration on Hanover on June 13th. They moved to the Kent and Dicken area on Monday the 16th and started doing the connections to the storm sewer. They will continue working in that area through the next week or two.

Starting on or around July 7th the contractor will be moving to an area in the Morehead neighborhood south of Scio Church basically the areas comprising the following streets: Amesbury, Delaware, Mershon, Welsh and Winstead. Some additional follow-up installation will occur on Wiltshire, Blaney and Churchill.

Updated 5/30/08

Sanford, Dunmore, Hanover and Waverly in Glen Leven. Almost all of the curb drain installation has been completed. All drilled pipe is complete and a short section of open trenching installation remains. The contractor will be installing that probably next week and completing all of the grass and concrete restoration right after that.

Kent, Dicken, Tudor and Eton in Morehead/Glen Leven study area. The directional drilling contractor has started to install curb drain pipe in the lawn extension on Dicken Dr. Two pipes on Kent were installed earlier this week. The contractor will be moving south on Dicken towards Tudor and Eton Ct over the next two weeks or so. A severely damaged storm sewer curb inlet vault was also found at 1507 Dicken Dr that the city of Ann Arbor Field Services department will be rebuilding, probably starting next week. Work to connect the pipes to the existing storm sewer system in this area will be proceeding initially a week or two behind the actual pipe drilling installation slowly catching up to the drilling crew.

Updated 4/11/08

Norfolk and Suffolk in the Dartmoor study area. The drilling and pipe connections have been completed and the contractor is working on completing the restoration of sidewalk ramps and lawn areas that were damaged over the next week.

Sanford, Dunmore, Hanover and Waverly in Glen Leven. The directional driller started to directionally drill in pipe on Sanford earlier this week. Sometime next week they should be moving to Dunmore, from there probably to Waverly and Hanover. Work to connect the pipes together and to the existing storm sewer system will be following the same pattern but a few days behind.