Township tank rehab cleaning project awarded

By Dana Casadei

A rehabilitation project for a damaged retention basin was unanimously approved at the Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees meeting on Monday, July 24.

The rehabilitation project on the tank is due to damage caused by a severe storm in June 2021. The designed capacity of the tank was exceeded, causing the hydraulic pressure from the over-capacity to blow out the southeast corner of the tank.

The Maxwell Court Retention Basin was constructed in 1974 and was designed to withstand a 10-year storm event.

Z Contractors Inc. was awarded the contract by trustees. They were one of two bids on the project, coming in at $518,501, a considerably lower cost than the project’s other bid of $769,500 from Pullman.

Paul Horen, Bloomfield Township Public Works Superintendent, said that the Maxwell Tank rehabilitation project will consist of retention base cleaning, structural concrete surface repairs, coatings, and the removal and replacement of an overflow pipe.

Hubbell, Roth, and Clark, Inc. (HRC) – consulting engineers for Bloomfield Township – completed a structural condition assessment of the tank in December 2021, and found the overall basin to be in fair condition but determined it still had issues that needed to be addressed.

HRC also reviewed the two bids submitted, ultimately recommending that the board of trustees go with Z Contractors Inc., who they have worked with before on multiple projects, including the 17 Mile Road bridge replacement project, 2019 bridge rehabilitation program project, Evergreen Road box culvert stabilization project, and Woodingham pump station replacement project.

Bloomfield Township Treasurer Brian Kepes brought up the possibility of replacing the tank instead of repairing it.

“If we replaced it, there are new stormwater standards now that we would have to conform to, so it may not even be possible,” said Noah Mehalski, director of public works.

It would also cost roughly between $10-11 million to replace it, according to Mehalski's estimate.