Muskegon County has announced the closure of Quarterline Road due to an ongoing sewer project since 2019. This reconstruction began Friday, August 27, 2021, and will continue until November 15, 2021. As Quarterline is the main road for students and staff to reach MCC, the alternate route to Sheridan is the posted detour that will be used for the next several months.

This $24 million project will improve the wastewater system in the City of Muskegon. City sewer and drinking water rates were increased to help pay for the cost. The project will take over ten years to complete, with Muskegon County’s plans dating back to before 2020.

The first part of the project involved work on the sewer line at Heritage Landing in December of 2019. The replacement of the force main sewer line in the Whitehall area will be the next project the county will work on, according to Dave Johnson, Director of Muskegon County Resource Recovery Center. While these smaller improvements were made to complete the entire wastewater system project, the work in Whitehall will specifically improve the old cast iron force main which was installed in 1972 and showed signs of corrosion. “These holes caused the force main to leak and sewage spilled from it; it is a pipeline that is in bad shape and needs to be replaced now, with a material called high-density polyethylene,” stated Johnson. “Compared with cast iron, polyethylene [plastic] is a better pipe to use and the best solution to avoid the problem of corrosion.”

Consequently, one may wonder how the success of the entire project will turn out. The engineering firm, Prein & Newhof has been working with Muskegon city officials during the last few years with this project. Dave Johnson commented on the results of the work they have done so far,  “The outcome of the last few years: we have been pleased with all of our construction projects. The engineers have done a great job designing them and the contractors we have worked with have all been very good.” As a result, over the next ten years or so, residents of Muskegon County can expect much promise in the sewer line work: upgrading and replacing older sewer mains and networks,  and overall improving the wastewater system entirely.