Wayne County has broken ground on a project that’s supposed to reduce train delays in the Downriver area. 

The plan is to separate the railroad tracks from a section of Allen Rd. in Woodhaven. Crews will lower the road so that it runs underneath the tracks.

It’s a public safety issue

County Public Services Director Dayo Akinyemi says when it’s finished, trains will no longer delay traffic on Allen Rd. north of Van Horn Rd. He says it’s common for ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars to get stuck while responding to emergencies.

“This will make that problem go away,” he says. “Anybody that lives Downriver will know that this is a problem we’ve been trying to solve for a long time.”

Wayne County announced the grade separation project in 2020. Akinyemi’s predecessor, Beverly Watts, said at the time she hoped to finish it within two or three years.  

But in 2022, Watts estimated the job would cost about $28 million dollars. Rising expenses delayed the project and raised the price tag to $65 million. 

So, Akinyemi says county, state, and local officials worked together to come up with the money.

“There are several sources of funds that’s cobbled together to get us to where we are today,” he says. “There’s money in the state transportation department, some earmarks from the federal government, earmarks from the state Legislature.”

Another challenge was acquiring right-of-way to relocate utilities such as power lines, fiber-optic cables, and water mains.

How long will it take?

“We’ve started the relocation of the Verizon lines,” he says. “Once we finish that, DTE gas will come to relocate their own line.”

And Akinyemi says by fall, people will see a lot more activity in the area. 

“Next year, we’ll begin the real construction,” he says. “There will be a period of time when there will be a full closure and a diversion of traffic.”

More: MDOT aims to end Fort Street train delays Downriver

Akinyemi estimates it will take up to three years to finish the project. During that period, the Michigan Department of Transportation expects to begin work on a similar project on Fort St. north of Van Horn Rd. in Trenton. 

A heavy rainstorm on April 2, 2025 filled Macomb County’s Red Run Drain with more than one million gallons of raw sewage from Oakland County.

Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller described the murky mess she found in the drain the next day.

“It looks like chocolate pudding,” Miller says.

The fetid water came from a sewer pipe that empties into the drain, festooning it with some not-so-festive decorations.

“It almost looks like Christmas trees, because they’re all covered with sanitary wipes, sewer wipes, and some things that are too gross to discuss,” Miller said. “It’s sickening.”

Miller’s counterpart, Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash, confirms the foul water came from one of his department’s sewer lines, the Dequindre Interceptor.

Normally what flows through that pipe goes to the Great Lakes Water Authority for treatment. But when too much rain fills the system, Nash says an emergency relief valve inside the pipe keeps raw sewage out of people’s basements.

“The only alternative, if we had closed off that valve, would have been to flood — we estimate — 700 to 800 homes in that area with pure sewage,” he said.

To prevent that, Nash said it was necessary to divert the water into the Red Run Drain after the storm.

The argument goes back years

But Miller says this is not a new problem, as Oakland County has a history of releasing not only raw sewage, but treated sewage mixed with stormwater into her communities. The technical term is a combined sewage overflow. Miller says enough is enough.

“We’d like Oakland County to try to do something about their combined sewer overflows,” she said.

Miller and Nash have been squabbling for years over a facility in Oakland County called the George W. Kuhn Retention Basin. It’s a huge operation that can hold up to 150 million gallons of combined sewage and stormwater. 

“The water comes in, it goes through a screen; we have the biggest screening facility in the country,” Nash said. “Anything over a half an inch is screened out. It’s raked into a trough and then sent to Detroit for cleaning. It gets past that, and then it goes into these large chambers that hold millions of gallons.”

Nash says after the solids settle, the county treats them with chlorine to kill harmful bacteria such as E. coli. 

“When it comes out of our facility, it’s extremely clean,” he said. 

Updating infrastructure takes time and money

The Kuhn basin was built in the 1970s, and Nash says it’s been expanded and updated several times since then. Before its construction, Oakland County averaged almost 60 combined sewage overflows a year. Nash says the basin has helped reduce that number to eight or nine.

That’s too much for Candice Miller. A week after the storm she wrote a letter to the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) accusing Oakland County of violating its state permit to operate the Kuhn basin. A bipartisan coalition of state lawmakers has offered legislation requiring EGLE to put tougher restrictions on the facility.

Miller is also asking for a law requiring counties to ask permission before releasing any sewage into another county — treated or not.

Nash denies violating any permits and says Kuhn operated as it’s designed to after the April 2 rainfall. He adds it’s not the only source flowing into the Red Run Drain.

“There’s five separate storm water drains that come into that area in the same place,” he said. 

Nash says some of that is coming from Macomb County, which also experiences combined sewage overflows. Miller says her department has reduced CSOs by 80% since she took office in 2017 and spent millions of dollars expanding and improving its own retention basins.

She says Oakland County either needs to build bigger basins — which it has — or separate its stormwater and sewage. Jim Nash says the cost of that would be enormous.

“The estimates currently are about $3 billion to $4 billion dollars and would take 20 or 30 years for it to happen.,” he said.

Both counties explore natural drainage options

Nash says a better solution would be building green infrastructure to absorb water from more frequent heavy rainstorms fueled by climate change.

“We have to find ways like rain gardens, rain barrels, even planting more trees in urban areas,” he said. “All those things help with storm water, help absorb it.”

Nash said Oakland County offers up to $2,000 rebates for people to put rain barrels, trees, or rain gardens on their property.

Macomb County has also invested in green infrastructure. One example is the Sterling Relief Drain between 15 and 16 Mile roads. Workers removed tons of concrete from the drain and replaced it with grass, plants, and other natural features to soak up water and prevent basement backups.

Related: Could Detroit’s buried streams see the light of day?

Candice Miller admits such projects take time and money.

“You can’t do it overnight because it’s very expensive and it takes time to improve and upgrade old, antiquated infrastructure,” she said. “Everybody’s dealing with, it’s not just us or Oakland or Wayne.”

In the meantime, Miller says she’ll keep pushing Nash and Oakland County on behalf of her constituents to reduce CSOs flowing into Macomb County.

“They say all the time, ‘sue Oakland County,'” she said. “I don’t want to do that; I’d like him to try to do something.”

Nash says he is doing something, and that Miller should focus on Macomb County. Either way, it’s a dispute that’s not ending anytime soon.

An ice storm at the end of March caused widespread damage throughout northern Michigan.

The Department of Natural Resources says an untold number of trees and power poles snapped or fell over under the weight of an inch or more of ice. Some landed on people’s houses, causing roof damage.

Some trees look like toothpicks

DNR Incident Response Team spokesperson Kathleen Lavey says the coating was so thick it bent pine trees out of shape.

“And we have hardwood trees that have lost a lot of their top branches due to the weight of the ice,” she said. “It’s kind of shocking when you’re looking at it.”

Lavey says people traveling north on I-75 between Gaylord and Mackinaw City will see many broken trees this spring.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency in 12 counties where thousands of homes and businesses lost power for several days. She also mobilized the Michigan National Guard to help the DNR and local authorities remove fallen trees and branches from hundreds of miles of roads.

Lavey says DNR staff showed Guard members how to use chain saws to clear large tree trunks.

“Our No. 1 goal is to get trees out of the roadways so that people can drive as needed, especially for emergency purposes, and so kids could go back to school,” she said.

Things have mostly returned to normal up north, but the ice storm’s impact will last for weeks, maybe months.

The DNR has temporarily closed many state parks, trails and campgrounds. The agency expects to reopen them in time for the tourism season.

More fuel for wildfires

The amount of tree debris on the ground has also raised concerns about of wildfires in northern Michigan. The DNR responded to almost two dozen wildfires in mid-April. Lavey says as trunks and branches dry out, they provide extra fuel for wildfires. Insects and disease are another concern.

More: Michigan DNR prepares for wildfire season

“A tree that has damage to its bark is more susceptible to like a fungal infection or to insects penetrating the tree, and we do have some concerns about forest health that we’re also going to be trying to address,” she said.

Lavey also warns people to watch for loose branches hanging in trees.

“The old loggers back in the day used to call them widow-makers,” she said. “If one landed on you, you were done.”

Forests will recover

Lavey says the ice storm has changed the appearance of Michigan’s forests, but their resilience ensures they’ll recover.

“Forests are used to having a reset every now and then,” she said. “They will persevere, and we will help them.”

Michigan State Police offer ice storm recovery updates and resource information online.