Cheboygan residents have become well-acquainted with road construction over the past year — as the city has been replacing sanitary sewer lines and water mains along several streets.
The city installed a new water tower recently and is wrapping up a major project on Court Street.
Cheboygan public works director, Jason Karmol said an aging distribution system built in the 1920s and 40s has resulted in "unsatisfactory" marks and noncompliance with state regulations.
"Our water is really good quality — it's just hard for me to serve that quality of water to our customers when our mains are so old," he said.
The new water tower, well improvements and a main replacement on Mill Street between the towers are the result of a low-interest $7.2 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Karmol said these upgrades will improve fire protection and essentially double water storage capacity to meet daily water use, that can reach a million gallons a day.
"The big thing is to finally have the tools to meet compliance with with our regulators," Karmol said. "The wastewater treatment plant upgrades allowed us to meet compliance for the last year it's been an operation, and then we hope to have a compliant water system as well that is deemed satisfactory."
With Court Street being finalized, the city is addressing infrastructure on Huron Street, Cuyler Street, Ball Street and Bailey Street. In total, Karmol estimates the projects total approximately $30 million, but certain projects have not gone out to bid yet.
The city aims to have most of the upgrades completed by Nov. 15.
"I don't want to put icing over a rotten cake, so I need to replace this infrastructure to give people good roads," Karmol said. "I'm running out of roads to pave that have good infrastructure underneath."
The city also recently received a $570,000 state grant to verify and eventually replace additional galvanized or lead service lines.
