Flint, MI — The City of Flint says Wade Trim, the engineering firm behind its Saginaw Street restoration project, will be taking on the cost of redoing two blocks of work after recently laid bricks showed signs of shifting following just a few weeks of traffic.

“The bricks between Court and Third Streets will be reinstalled with polymer sand at the engineering firm’s expense—not the taxpayers,” read the city’s press release on Oct. 2, 2023.

City of Flint Communications Director Caitie O’Neill said Wade Trim was still working to determine the final cost of pulling up and relaying the segment of Saginaw, and the national engineering firm’s Flint office did not return Flint Beat’s request for comment by press time.

Pallets of bricks sit at the corner of Court Street and Saginaw Street in downtown Flint, Mich. on Sept. 28, 2023. (Kate Stockrahm | Flint Beat}

As Flint Beat first reported, construction crews began pulling up bricks on a completed section of the historic roadway last week, after they had noticed them “shifting,” according to Flint City Engineer Mark Adas.

“We evaluated the situation and determined the shifting was the result of an issue with the material being used to bed and lock the bricks,” Adas said in an emailed statement. “It was determined that the bricks should be removed and reinstalled using a polymer sand to prevent the shifting.”

In its Oct. 2 press release, the city noted that the removal and reinstallation should not set the project timeline back, and current work on Saginaw Street between Second and First Streets will continue as crews work to re-do the completed segment of roadway between Court Street and Third Street.

The roughly $8.5 million restoration project began in April 2023 and with the goal of restoring downtown Saginaw Street “brick-by-brick” and upgrading all its underground utilities from Court Street to the Flint River. That scope includes water main replacement, electrical upgrades, running conduits for lights and meters, as well as the replacement of two gas mains, according to the city’s press release.

Funding for the project includes roughly $2.3 million from the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), $3.4 million from the City of Flint’s Major Roads Fund, and $2.8 million from the federal Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act (WIIN).

According to the city’s Oct. 2 press release, the project’s final phase of work should be complete in early August 2024.

Kate is Flint Beat's associate editor. She joined the team as a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues....

One reply on “City of Flint says engineering firm will pay for Saginaw Street restoration re-do”

  1. Who thought Wade Trim was a good idea?
    Name some names, Kate.
    Don’t quit digging, Kate; you will miss the real story here; not unlike the brand new parking @ 3rd and Harrison, which has been reborn as the foundation for developers to build the Y etc. How does Dave Lurvey play into this boonswoggle? And the mayor—what is his role in all these development operations?
    Keep digging, young reporter. Put together the connective tissue between these developments and you will be exposing undercovered Flint stories.

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