Harbor Point Lift Station - New Buffalo, Michigan
The existing 4" cast iron forcemain from Harbor Point Lift Station at its crossing of the Galien River required replacement. Due to the nature of the site, alongside a twenty foot high approach fill for the bridge over the river that included a great deal of landscaping and a boat marina with retaining walls and sidewalks, horizontal directional drilling rather than open cut construction was proposed.
NIES Engineering designed the new crossing line. It was determined that the existing twelve inch watermain in the same location was too close to the sewer line to satisfy environmental requirements, and in addition was found to be only four feet under water when it should have been four feet under river bottom! Consequently, it too was replaced.
The work was started in the spring of 2001 and both lines, 800 feet of 4" Sewer Forcemain, and 900 feet of 12" watermain were installed in four weeks time, with very little site disturbance and no obstruction to river traffic exiting the marina going to Lake Michigan.