The Brighton City Council Thursday night approved over $200,000 for repairs to a ruptured sewer line and a sinkhole on Rickett Road which occurred in an industrial area on June 29th, south of the railroad tracks.

The funds used to pay for the work will come from the city’s utility reserve fund. After the incident last week the northbound lane was blocked off at that point and northbound traffic re-routed through Summit St. and Sisu Knoll. However, on Thursday Rickett was reopened to through traffic, according to Brighton DPW Director Marcel Goch.

After considerable discussion, council approved the lowest responsive bid, by Joe Raica Excavating of Fowlerville, which city officials say has a good reputation for its work. A friendly amendment approved by council tacked on some extra dollars to repair the road where the sinkhole occurred, about 200 feet away, for a bid award of $195,000.

Council also approved $12,300 for Tetra Tech, the city’s engineering firm, to do design and engineering work on the project. City Manager Nate Geinzer says the sewer main where the breach occurred is one of several old sewer lines in the city which date back to 1938. Due to the age of some of the city’s sewer and water lines, another rupture could occur in the near future anywhere in the system. However, city officials say when, and the location, would be hard to predict.

The Rickett Road repair work is expected to start on Monday, July 9th, and be completed by the end of the week, with favorable weather. (TT)