Drain project closing roads near Frandor
The tranquility of the Red Cedar River is quite the contrast from what’s going on in Frandor right now. But the two are intertwined.
LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - If you thought Frandor traffic was bad before, you might want to avoid the area for at least the next month or so. That’s because construction on the Montgomery drain project is closing roads in the area.
The tranquility of the Red Cedar River is quite the contrast from what’s going on in Frandor right now. But the two are intertwined. Pollution from our roads is ending up in the river.
Pat Lindemann, Ingham County’s Drain Commissioner, explained how they demonstrate the relationship between the two.
“I put a teaspoon of orange dye in a catch basin in front of JoAnn Fabric in the parking lot at Frandor, and got in my car, drove down to the river and the orange dye was already in the river,” Lindermann said. “That’s how fast the surface drains.”
Lindemann says he’s been working on this Montgomery drain project for the last 25 years. He estimates with the current drain setup there’s somewhere between 50 and 75 thousand pounds of pollution that are going into the red cedar river every year.
Lindemann hopes the project will fix that, but it’s going to close Clippert Street between Saginaw and Grand River until at least early June.
“It’s filthy,” Lindermann said. “I mean it’s not a good river to eat fish from because it’s so polluted, because it’s got so much imperviousness in it, so much agricultural chemistry, so much fertilizer from the lawn, cigarette butts, whatever it is, is coming into the river. The river is polluted. And we have to stop that.”
The project may also have a slight fix for businesses, where flooding is frequent during big storms.
“The system that I’m building can handle a two-inch storm, which is 94% of all the storms that happen over time,” Lindermann said.
Lindemann says this project won’t address the flooding that often happens along the Red Cedar River near Kalamazoo Street. That’s something his office is working on, but it’s extensive and likely won’t be fixed for another 20-to-30 years.
Copyright 2021 WILX. All rights reserved.
Subscribe to our News 10 newsletter and receive the latest local news and weather straight to your email every morning.
