City to consider razing Pine Grove overlook

Port Huron may raze a former water plant months after safety concerns closed the overlook on top of the building in Pine Grove Park.

But officials have to talk about all the options before that happens.

An engineering report of the structure sent to city officials this week proposes three options — repair, demolish or a combination of both — to address the structural deterioration from the last several decades.

A report last year had already concluded the structure, mainly built in the 1870s, wasn’t safe for park-goers to stop on before it was closed to the public at the end of August.

“(The analysis was) to put professional opinion to what we could see by eye. I mean, we’re engineers, but we wanted a professional opinion to (confirm),” said Public Works Director Lennie Naeyaert. “Per our worst fears, the building is not sound for people to walk on or to work in.”

The analysis, provided by firm Anderson, Eckstein and Westrick Inc., included the following observations of the old plant’s condition:

• Cracks were discovered in a concrete deck throughout the structure, exposing steel reinforcement and leaking water, as well as smaller areas with concrete spalls.
• Some step cracking in mortar joints of an east-side brick wall.
• “Severe failure” of a southern wall, where steel beams have lost bearing and additional gaps in mortar joints and missing bricks were discovered.
• Cracks and concrete spalling, some patched and some developing, along the overlook.

READ THE ENGINEERING REPORT:

Pine Grove Park Overlook Report | Masonry

The plant had been used as a DPW storage area, and the first optioned outlined by the report would entail repairing the facility entirely to maintain that use — a scope of work estimated to cost about $887,000.

However, the second option would entail repairs to just the overlook over the building’s engine room and demolishing the rest at a cost roughly totaling $497,000.

The third option — to raze the building for about $212,000 — is the one City Manager James Freed told City Council members in an email that was “the most viable,” adding he’d already directed city staff to begin to plan for it.

But council still has to mull the options over, he said on Tuesday. The first opportunity may come Feb. 21 during a special meeting to discuss goals.

Mayor Pauline Repp said it’s too soon to know “whether or not we’ll proceed with it” until council meets as a group.

“I really, personally, don’t have a mindset one way or the other,” she said. “Certainly, the overlook has been there a long time as part of Pine Grove Park.”

In the meantime, the overlook will remain closed to the public.

“Even if it’s gone, it’ll still be a heck of a view there,” Freed said of the overlook’s site, which is along Michigan Street at the southeast corner of Pine Grove Park across from the water filtration plant. “And this doesn’t eliminate options to pursue a DNR grant for some type of viewing platform in the future. These are just ideas that we’ll talk about at the council meeting.”

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.