About Chrysler Highland Park Highland Park Michigan

The Chrysler Highland Park Plant in Highland Park, Michigan — a city entirely surrounded by Detroit — stands as one of the most historically significant industrial sites in American manufacturing. Albert Kahn designed and built it in 1909–1910, and it became the birthplace of Henry Ford’s moving assembly line.

After Ford shifted primary operations to River Rouge in the late 1910s and 1920s, Chrysler Corporation acquired the Highland Park site and built it into:

  • A major production center for Plymouth, Dodge, and Chrysler-brand vehicles
  • Chrysler’s corporate headquarters for decades
  • A hub of manufacturing, engineering, and administrative operations

At its peak, the complex employed tens of thousands of workers, spanned millions of square feet across interconnected factory, foundry, engineering, and office buildings, and ran for most of the twentieth century as a heavy manufacturing facility. It included foundry operations, paint shops, boiler plants, and extensive mechanical systems.

The age, scale, and operational complexity of this facility made it a site where asbestos-containing materials were reportedly used throughout much of the twentieth century. Chrysler’s Highland Park facility ran heavy industrial operations that required solutions to specific engineering problems. From the 1910s through the late 1970s — and in some legacy applications into the 1980s — asbestos-containing materials were the industry-standard solution. No other commercially available material matched their combination of properties.

General Equipment at Chrysler Highland Park Highland Park Michigan

The equipment below represents the systems and infrastructure documented or typically present at this facility during the era when asbestos-containing materials were specified in industrial construction. This is general facility-equipment reference — not a legal attribution of any specific product, manufacturer, or exposure event to this facility. Material-category and manufacturer information is addressed in the AsbestosIndex Product Crosswalk linked under the records table below.

Industrial Boilers View crosswalk › Process Piping View crosswalk › Pipe Insulation View crosswalk › Block Insulation View crosswalk › Valves View crosswalk › Gaskets View crosswalk › Pumps View crosswalk › Heat Exchangers View crosswalk › Cooling Equipment View crosswalk ›

Documented Asbestos Evidence

The records below are verified, state-documented asbestos removals at this facility. Each entry represents a regulated abatement project where the Michigan EGLE (Environment, Great Lakes & Energy) (Michigan EGLE) was notified under federal NESHAP rules, the work was logged, and the asbestos-containing material was confirmed and removed under regulated conditions. These are not allegations or estimates — they are paper records tying documented asbestos-containing material to this specific site.

No Michigan EGLE NESHAP abatement notifications have been identified for this facility in current public records. Per the framing above, absence of state-agency documentation should not be read as absence of asbestos — only as absence of a formal, regulated abatement event meeting reporting thresholds. Workers who recall encountering pipe insulation, block insulation, gaskets, or other asbestos-era construction materials at this facility may still have viable claims regardless of whether a state record exists.

Material Categories in Documented Records

The materials documented above (and similar asbestos-containing materials commonly encountered in records of this type) appear in the AsbestosIndex catalog with historical manufacturer and trust-fund information. Click a category to view manufacturers historically associated with that material:

Thermal System Insulation View crosswalk › Asbestos-Cement Board View crosswalk › Pipe Insulation View crosswalk › Roofing & Flashing View crosswalk › Spray Fireproofing View crosswalk › Floor Tile & Mastic View crosswalk › Ceiling Tile View crosswalk › Gaskets & Packing View crosswalk ›

Who May Have Been Exposed at Chrysler Highland Park Highland Park Michigan

Insulators and Pipe Coverers: Insulators rank among the most consistently documented high-risk groups in asbestos litigation and epidemiological research. Insulators at Highland Park — potentially including members of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 1 — allegedly worked directly with asbestos-containing materials on the facility’s thermal systems. Tasks that generated fiber releases included cutting pre-formed asbestos-containing pipe sections to length, mixing and applying asbestos-containing insulating cements in open work areas, finishing and sanding hardened insulation surfaces, and removing and replacing damaged or aging insulation during maintenance, all performed without adequate respiratory protection before meaningful OSHA enforcement.

Pipefitters, Steamfitters, Boilermakers, Electricians, and Maintenance Workers: Pipefitters and steamfitters throughout Highland Park — potentially including members of Plumbers and Pipefitters UA Local 562 — allegedly worked in sustained proximity to asbestos-containing insulated pipe systems and replaced asbestos-containing gaskets on pipe flanges, valves, and fittings. Boilermakers allegedly encountered asbestos-containing materials from multiple manufacturers including refractory and insulating materials around boiler fireboxes, asbestos-containing rope and gasket materials in boiler door seals, and block insulation on steam drums. Electricians may have faced exposures from arc chutes and switchgear, wire and cable insulation, and fireproofing penetrations. Millwrights and general maintenance mechanics moved across the full range of operations at Highland Park, creating exposure potential across machinery maintenance, building system maintenance, and equipment replacement involving asbestos-containing materials.

Sheet Metal Workers and Foundry Workers: Sheet metal workers cutting, fitting, and installing ductwork may have worked alongside and within asbestos-containing materials embedded in duct insulation products, vibration dampening materials, and fireproofing materials. Workers in foundry operations and machine shops may have faced asbestos exposures from insulation on high-temperature process equipment, refractory materials in foundry equipment, heat-treat furnace insulation, and equipment gaskets and sealing materials.

Critical Filing Deadline & Next Steps

Michigan law gives mesothelioma and asbestos-disease claimants 3 years from the date of medical diagnosis to file a personal-injury lawsuit (MCL § 600.5805(13)). For wrongful-death claims after an asbestos-related death, the filing window is 3 years from the date of death (MCL § 600.5852). The two deadlines run on separate tracks — preserving one does not extend the other.

The personal-injury clock runs from diagnosis, not from exposure. Mesothelioma latency is typically 20 to 50 years, so workers exposed in the 1950s–1980s are being diagnosed today.

Practical first steps

  1. Document what you remember. Pay stubs, W-2s, union cards, photographs, coworker names, and dates of employment. The WorkChain widget on this page can save a copy you can email yourself.
  2. Preserve medical records. Pathology reports, biopsy results, imaging, and pulmonary-function tests are central to both civil claims and trust-fund filings.
  3. Identify household members. Spouses who laundered work clothing and children of plant workers are eligible for secondary-exposure claims when diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease.
  4. Speak with an asbestos attorney with Michigan experience. The first conversation is free and confidential. Asbestos trust-fund claims and civil claims run on different tracks — both can be pursued in parallel.

Asbestos-Related Diseases

Asbestos fiber exposure can cause several specific diseases that typically appear decades after the original exposure. The latency period — the gap between exposure and diagnosis — usually runs 20 to 50 years. That's why workers exposed in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s are receiving diagnoses today.

Mesothelioma

A rare, aggressive cancer that affects the lining of the lungs (pleural mesothelioma), abdomen (peritoneal), or heart (pericardial). Mesothelioma is almost exclusively caused by asbestos exposure, which is why a mesothelioma diagnosis often points directly to historical workplace exposure. Average latency from first exposure to diagnosis is 30-50 years.

Asbestosis

A chronic, non-cancerous scarring of lung tissue caused by inhaled asbestos fibers. Asbestosis causes progressive shortness of breath, persistent cough, and reduced lung function. It does not improve with treatment, and it is a recognized basis for compensation under most trust schedules and civil claims.

Lung Cancer

Asbestos exposure significantly increases the risk of lung cancer, particularly when combined with a history of smoking. Asbestos-related lung cancer is compensable under the same trust schedules and civil claim avenues as mesothelioma.

Other Recognized Diseases

Pleural plaques, pleural thickening, laryngeal cancer, ovarian cancer, and certain gastrointestinal cancers are also recognized as asbestos-related under various trust schedules and case-law authorities, though eligibility and proof requirements vary by claim type.

If you have any of these diagnoses and you worked at this facility, lived with someone who did, or were exposed in any documented capacity, you may have a claim worth pursuing. Speak with an attorney before assuming you don't qualify.

Data Sources

Information about facility equipment, industrial materials, and occupational records referenced on this page is drawn from publicly available sources where applicable, including:

If specific equipment or product claims in this article are sourced from a non-public database, the source is identified parenthetically within the text above.