The Premarc Corporation - Success Stories - Gibraltar's Municipal Complex

Gibraltar's Municipal Complex

Wayne County - Steadfast and strong like the name of their city, the citizens of Gibraltar Michigan voted in 2002 to build a new 35,000 square foot municipal complex that includes a city hall, fire station, and police station. It will also house employees from the Clerk's and Treasurer's offices and the Department of Public Works, council chambers and a museum. The longevity of the new complex is assured by the quality of the servicing of the 3 1/2 -acre site that includes a concrete pipe storm sewer with a 100-year service life.

Upon request by the City, engineers with Charles E. Raines designed the layout of the project including a new parking lot, roof drains, driveways and a storm drain outlet to the Detroit River. Due to its strength and 100-year service life, reinforced concrete pipe was specified for the drainage of this project. Since the City of Gibraltar borders the Detroit River, and is characterized with many canals and a low laying landscape, it was important that storm drain system flotation issues were carefully addressed when selecting the pipe material. The weight of the concrete pipe minimized any floatation issues, ensuring a sold structure with well-connected joints.

Gibraltar is the marshland and wetland of Metropolitan Detroit. In a low laying or marshy environment, the buoyancy of buried pipelines depend of the weight of the pipe material, the weight of the volume of water displaced by the pipe, the weight of the liquid load carried by the pipe, and the weight of the backfill material. Whenever the water table level is above the invert of the pipeline the potential for floatation or buoyancy exists. Although the trench for a pipe installation in a marshy area is dewatered, the trench downstream (after initial backfill) may become saturated. This would lead to a buoyant effect on the pipe. the mass of the concrete pipe would counteract this buoyant force. Alternate materials such as thermoplastic pipe and corrugated metal pipe may heave vertically or snake horizontally in wetland conditions. During the backfill operation, the fill may accumulate more on one side of the pipe than the other. The mass of the concrete pipe resists lateral forces, and the structure remains true to line and grade. These are some of the technical issues that the engineer faced when preparing the design of the storm sewer which helped lead to a specification for concrete pipe.

Compeau Brothers, Inc., was awarded the contract for the site preparation, paving and installation of the new storm sewer. The need for quality concrete pipe prompted the contractor to purchase concrete pipe from the Premarc Corporation. When construction was completed in the fall of 2004, Gibraltar citizens where able to showcase a new municipal complex that would meet their needs for decades.

Project:	City of Gibraltar Municipal Complex Southern Wayne County, Michigan
Owner:	City of Gibraltar
Consulting Engineer and Surveyor:	Charles E. Raines Company Riverview, Michigan
Architect:	Wilkie & Zanley Architects Wyandotte, Michigan
Contractor:	J.M. Olson Corporation St. Clair Shores, Michigan
Quantities:	1,928 feet of 12-30 inch diameter Class IV RCP. (15) 48-72 inch diameter precast concrete manholes
Producer:	Premarc Corporation Durand, Michigan

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