There's progress being made on fixing the sinkhole in Macomb County, and officials hope that'll help put an end to some of the drama it has caused between neighboring cities.
A new pipe is going in along 15 Mile Road in Fraser. This pipe is replacing the broken and outdated one that led to the sinkhole.
The city of Sterling Heights filed a lawsuit against the county earlier this summer.
The city claims it shouldn't be responsible for any of the $75 million it'll take to fix the sinkhole, which began causing damage on Christmas Eve.
Candice Miller is Macomb County’s public works commissioner. She says there are 11 communities paying for the repairs.
“No one else has joined with Sterling Heights. Everybody else is thinking that what we're doing here is exactly right,” Miller said.
Sterling Heights claimed when the suit was originally filed that it was the previous county public works commissioner's responsibility to inspect the drain.
The county is inspecting the entire interceptor drain during this construction project, according to Miller.
“This lining is going to make sure that we don't have another sinkhole on 15 Mile Road,” she said.
The county has experienced two sinkholes before this current one along this interceptor before, most recently in 2004.
Miller says the replacement pipe should be in by the end of August. She says the entire $75 million project should be done before winter.
