Engineering firm Abonmarche has received an award for its work to replace lead water service lines in Benton Harbor. It’s the winner of the American Council of Engineering Companies “Honorable Conceptor Award” for the effort. Joelle Regovich with Abonmarche tells us the work all started about two years ago, when the firm got a grant to start off replacing the lines at 200 homes. Then the state got involved.
“Abonmarche was tasked with creating the strategy for figuring out how we were going to do this in 18 months, providing the bid information, advertising it, selecting contractors, awarding contractors, and then providing the construction oversight while everybody was in town,” Regovich said.
Regovich says Abonmarche worked with seven contractors to get the old lines out and new ones put in.
“The contractors were so great. They just powered through everything and it wrapped up very quickly, well ahead of schedule. So, now we’re down to essentially just a handful of homes.”
And those only remain because their owners can’t be reached. Regovich says it was tough work coordinating the project in the beginning, but once things were in place, it all flew by. She says residents are relieved to know the water being pumped into their homes is safe, noting the state offers free inspections of the homes themselves for interior lead lines. Abonmarche received its award March 11.
Pictured: Abonmarche team members and Benton Harbor city officials accepted the Honorable Conceptor award for their Benton Harbor Lead Service Line Replacement project as part of the ACEC/Michigan Engineering & Surveying Excellence Awards. From Left: Jason Marquardt, Senior Project Manager & Construction Group Director at Abonmarche; Ellis Mitchell, Benton Harbor City Manager; Edward Isom, Benton Harbor Commissioner; Joelle Regovich, Grant Specialist at Abonmarche; Lucas Grosse, Construction Manager at Abonmarche; Marcus Muhammad, Benton Harbor Mayor
