The City of Ann Arbor is holding a public meeting on Thursday, December 16 at 6:30 p.m. in the Bryant Community Center, 3 Eden Court, to discuss the Arbor Oaks Water Main & Street Resurfacing Project. This is scheduled to start in March 2011, and will replace the majority of the water mains in the Arbor Oaks Subdivision (also known as the Bryant Area). It is expected to be completed in November 2011.

The project is currently out for bids, with the project description specifying the work to be done as follows:

Work to be done includes the construction of approximately 6,150 feet of 8-inch and approximately 3,500 feet of 12-inch ductile iron water main encased in polyethylene within Champagne Drive, Hemlock Drive, Stratton Court, Downing Court, Englewood Court, Manitou Court, Metroview Court, Faust Court, Trowbridge Court, Kilbrennan Court, W. Eden Court, E. Eden Court, Rockland Court, and Plainview Court, and all related work.

The entire project bid package runs to about 200 pages, and includes everything that a construction company would need to know to bid on the proposal. Sealed bids will be received by the city on or before January 14, 2011, at 2:00 p.m., and a pre-bid conference for this project will be held on January 4 to answer any questions which need clarification.

For more information, contact project manager Nick Hutchinson at (734) 794-6410 x43633 or by email at nhutchinson@a2gov.org, or see the Arbor Oaks Water Main Project page on the City of Ann Arbor web site.

Other water issues in the Bryant neighborhood

This work is being done because of a number of water main breaks in this subdivision. That's not the end of the water-related issues in this neighborhood, as previous news coverage shows.

In June, 2010, residents wanted City Council to form a task force to address flooding in the neighborhood. Of 147 households who returned a survey, 90 percent indicated problems with water flooding and pooling in their yards or dampness and moisture in their crawl-spaces. Drainage in the neighborhood is poor, with wet clay soils, a flat landscape, and poorly maintained stormwater infrastructure all contributing to flooding.

A map of Arbor Oaks Subdivision #1, the original plat map for the neighborhood, shows another portion of the problem. The subdivision has a web of easements running between properties, marked on the map legend as "All easements are private for public utilities and drainage." Communications from the City of Ann Arbor regularly refer to "private storm drains connected to the public main," but the plat map seems to indicate that the original design anticipated public drains on these rights of way.

Edward Vielmetti writes about water for AnnArbor.com.