15 Mile and Gratiot

**Bluenote132003** · January-06-11, 11:29 AM

Excuse me if another thread has been started on this, couldn't find one. Also, it's not in Detroit proper, but Detroit utilities may have had something to do with it. About a year ago, construction started right on the corner of 15 mile and Gratiot, in the empty lot in front of Lowes [[sorry, tried a Google Map link, doesn't seem to be working for me). Google does seem to show the lot before construction started, just an empty parking lot. While construction was going on, there was a kind of debris fence around the area, not so much for secrecy, but to keep dust and debris from getting out of the site. However, it did make it difficult to observe what was going on inside. They dug a hole approx half the size of a football field [[probably bigger than that...) and about 3 stories down. The walls were reinforced with steel, like corrugated seawall. There was a ramp for trucks leading to the bottom, and a lot of odd looking trucks going in and out, up and down the ramp. There appeared to be some sot of structures at the bottom of the hole. I thought it would be interesting to see what type of building was going to be put up there. Never got out and poked around, just watched once or twice a week driving by on the way home from work. I never expected the finished result, it appeared they filled the hole up, levelled it off, compacted the dirt above it, and left??!? Looks like nothing ever happened there, but all this stuff is left undergound...
My guess is a pumping station, water from the lake, sewage, or storm water; but nothing torn up around the area for pipes to lead in or out. There used to be a Montgomery Wards on the site, so I don't think they fixed, repaired, or updated anything that may have already been down there. Anyone know anything about it?

**MikeM** · January-06-11, 11:44 AM

The 15 Mile Road interceptor [[sewage) runs along there from the Clinton River west into Sterling Heights. The DWSD is probably doing modifications or repair work.

**DTWflyer** · January-06-11, 11:48 AM

Detroit Water & Sewer Department construction, specifically on the sewer interceptor system.

I don't know the specific construction going on there but there a lot of sewer interceptors that flow through that area. An interceptor is like a highway, a large diameter, often 6-8-10 feet in diameter that collects flow from local sewers and flows to the wasterwater treatment plant.

There are many sewer inceptors in that area, there is a large one that flows down Harper, another large on that flows down Garfield, and theres a large one that flows across 15 mile.

What is sounds like is that site was used as a tunneling/access site to bore. Many of the sewer inceptors are relatively deep, so they generally do not do cut & cover construction, instead bore & tunnel.

Part of the reason for so many sewers in that area is due to topography and geography. All of the flows from Mt. Clemens & points north [[Chesterfield, Richmond, etc.) go through there, as well as Clinton Twp, Harrison Twp. The regions elevation slopes downward toward Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River.

**tarkus** · January-06-11, 12:19 PM

My understanding of it is that it was a environmental cleanup from the Montgomery Wards Auto Repair shop that was on that specific site.

**Maof** · January-06-11, 01:11 PM

Originally Posted by tarkus

My understanding of it is that it was a environmental cleanup from the Montgomery Wards Auto Repair shop that was on that specific site.

yep, that's what i heard too.

**MikeM** · January-06-11, 01:47 PM

Originally Posted by Bluenote132003

They dug a hole approx half the size of a football field [[probably bigger than that...) and about 3 stories down. The walls were reinforced with steel, like corrugated seawall. There was a ramp for trucks leading to the bottom, and a lot of odd looking trucks going in and out, up and down the ramp.

Something like this [[although it's not the same hole):

http://www.macombcountymi.gov/publicworks/index.htm

I see DWSD is replacing the 5' diameter sewer with an 8' sewer, paralleling 15 Mile Road, from Harper to Garfield.

**Bluenote132003** · January-06-11, 02:08 PM

Yeah, it was along the lines of that type of hole, but wide enough trucks could drive down a ramp into it. Some type of boring operation seems to make the most sense, but no sign of where they may have been boring to, or any other pipe work in the area. Wouldn't surprise me that environmental cleanup would have been necessary at the site, but that didn't seem to be the main goal, there was construction going on at the bottom of the hole, plus a lot of seawall type corrugated reinforcement going in. It was just really weird to see that much work going on at the place, and then returning the site to look almost exactly as it was before they started! Thanks for all the comments...

**MikeM** · January-06-11, 02:25 PM

That sounds way too large to be an environmental clean-up from a Montgomery Ward. I don't think any pump station was built there; it probably was an access point for construction on the new interceptor. The current sewer is closest to the surface in that area.

**Danny** · January-06-11, 02:28 PM

Unlike the gigantic sinkhole at 15 Mile Rd and Moravian years ago, Let us hope that sewer interceptor works. Otherwise folk would look at more flooded roads, neigborhood streets and more flooded basements flowing with a sea of poo!

**Detwa** · January-06-11, 04:17 PM

Its so funny that you made a thread about this, I was just over there the other day with my son and he was just flabbergasted to see that they had closed the ground and appeared to be done. He was like, what happened? I thought they were building something there? He pestered me all the way down the road and we started throwing out alien theories and had a great laugh. Remember in War of the Worlds [[2000 version) when the monsters came up out of the ground? We started joking that they had planted the pods down in there. I was laughing so hard I almost had to pull over. Anyway, it did seem as if they were doing repairs rather than actually constructing.

**dodgemain** · January-06-11, 06:25 PM

Here is a site that explains the sewer interceptor work. I thought 15 & Gratiot was part of it, but I guess not.

http://www.macombcountymi.gov/publicworks/index.htm

**gazhekwe** · January-06-11, 06:28 PM

They built something like this at the edge of the Lincoln Hills Golf Course in Birmingham. It has something to do with stormwater management.

**JTistle1** · January-06-11, 07:57 PM

There were gas pumps there back in the late seventies early eighties, before I worked there busting tires.

**marcwigle** · January-06-11, 08:17 PM

Some of you people are so dumb... they were digging there trying to find Jimmy Hoffa.

Toolbox · January-06-11, 09:20 PM

I would go with site cleanup due to leaking storage tank.

**Detwa** · January-06-11, 09:43 PM

I'm surprised they're letting that corner sit there undeveloped for so long. With the bus stop and the schools, seems like a prime location for some kind of eatery like Tim Hortons or otherwise.

**Mikeg** · January-07-11, 12:33 AM

Originally Posted by Toolbox

I would go with site cleanup due to leaking storage tank.

Bluenote - below are 1997 and recent aerials of the MW auto service site on the NW corner of 15 Mile and Gratiot. Was the excavation located right next to the former building? If so, then I have to go along with Toolbox's conclusion [[and the contamination would explain why that corner has not attracted a new development).

Attachment 8257

Attachment 8258

**CLAUDE G** · January-07-11, 12:54 AM

I remember going to the auction when the Auto service center closed. Got a good deal on some above ground hoists for my auto repair shop. Got an alignment machine from another one of their stores at auction.

**MikeM** · January-07-11, 10:38 AM

Originally Posted by Toolbox

I would go with site cleanup due to leaking storage tank.

That a good possibility, but then it was only a 500 gallon tank. I think of all the gas stations around me that have closed over the past two decades and none of them required digging a hole 100 yards wide and three-stories deep, with cassion sides and some "structure" at the bottom.

There's a sewage pumping station at 15 Mile Road & Harper that pumps sewage uphill [[underneath 15 Mile) to the vicinity of Maynard [[a couple of blocks east of Gratiot). From there it empties into a gravity-fed sewer that runs downhill to another sewer at Garfield Road. The small diameter and uphill run limit the pumping capacity of the station so DWSD is building a new, larger diameter sewer that is gravity-fed, from the pumping station all the way to Garfield Road.

I could be wrong, but I would think this construction was related to the new interceptor.

**Bluenote132003** · January-07-11, 12:27 PM

I would say the hole encompassed the entire gray area on the picture, if not a little more. Easily would have encompassed the entire building. The corrugated "seawall" retention material was driven into the ground probably within 10-15 feet of the sidewalk, pretty close, with the construction fence between the hole and the sidewalk. The truck ramp was near the upper left corner of the picture. Not to say there wasn't any environmental cleanup there, I'm sure there was something, but this would have seemed like huge overkill for a 500 gallon tank and whatever may have leached into the ground around it or the building. The first thing I thought of when I saw the job completed was that this was how the cold war missles were buried across the country! No signs, huge construction, restored to pre-construction state to blend right in! They may have trucked or chopperred missles in under the cover of night from Selfridge....? I don't think they do that anymore, but...????

**MikeM** · January-07-11, 12:41 PM

Also, if it was Montgomery Ward clean up, they would have dug so deep as to run into the 15 Mile sewer; it runs along the north side of the road and is only about 15' below the surface at Gratiot.

**Rochelle St.** · January-07-11, 02:00 PM

Originally Posted by JTistle1

There were gas pumps there back in the late seventies early eighties, before I worked there busting tires.

I worked in the Wards Auto Express at Gratiot and Fifteen mile from '86 till they went out of business in 2000.

Remember that strange tank they put in the junk tire cage?
What was that for?
It may have had something to do with the digging.

**old guy** · January-07-11, 04:22 PM

Bluenote, did they pile the dirt up and then use it to re-fill the hole or did they haul it out and bring in new fill. If it was a contamination site they would generally haul the dirt out and run it through an incinerator process [[or whatever they call it.) If they were just doing sewage or water work, there probably would have been a huge pile of fill on the site during the project.

**JTistle1** · January-07-11, 05:54 PM

Rochelle, I started there in 86, we must have worked together.

**Baron_Haussmann** · January-07-11, 06:15 PM

This was a clean up funded with ARRA funds. Not only were there LUST [[Leaking underground storage tanks) from the Montgomery Wards Auto Repair, but there were also past contaminants on site that comingled with the petroleum from the tanks [[a dry cleaner among others). The development of the Lowe's at this corner was actually one of Macomb County's first brownfield redevelopment projects.