Roseville -- A severely eroded portion of a storm drain that was threatening I-94 westbound lanes has been repaired, according to Macomb County Public Works.

Work began on Aug. 22 after the county became aware of the worst erosion situation in county history, according to Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller.

“This project is emergency construction, and the contractor has done excellent work in quick fashion thus far,” Miller said in a news release Friday. “There’s no telling when the recent rapid erosion south of 13 Mile Road that got to within about 25 yards from I-94 would have reached the westbound lanes and resulted in a huge traffic disruption and several million dollars in construction costs. That’s a scenario we’re working to avoid.”

No road closures are expected, Public Works Communications Manager Norb Franz said.

A contractor straightened the open channel Rohrbeck Extension Drain and installed a new catch basin and new pipe to replace a collapsed tap. The restored portion of the embankment now is strengthened by hundreds of boulders to prevent future erosion.

The contractor is set to work on other portions of the bank to implement other fixes to the erosion.

 Last month when the county was setting plans to fix the erosion, Miller described the force of the recent stormwaters through the drain coming at the embankment like a “fire hose” causing as much as 6 feet of erosion.

“Our concern was that higher and stronger flow in the channel following a heavy rain event would easily wash away a lot more of the sand used as backfill when the freeway was built in the 1960s. So it was time to act,” Miller said in the news release.

If the erosion somehow caused a collapse of that section of freeway near 13 Mile, it could’ve costed millions of dollars to repair and disrupted traffic flow of about 44,000 vehicles a day.

Funding for the repairs cost is coming from existing drain district funds in Roseville and will cost several hundred thousand dollars, according to the news release