Allen Street

Challenge

Allen Street was the main road through Random Lake’s historic downtown. This area was predominantly flat, which caused drainage issues and accelerated pavement deterioration. Like many suburban areas of the Midwest, Random Lake’s downtown consisted of commercial, industrial, and residential buildings with entrances situated close to the roadway. Given this configuration, significantly altering the roadway profile was not feasible, so other methods of addressing these challenges were required. To further complicate the project, reconstructing the roadway required extensive coordination with the Wisconsin & Southern Railroad line, which runs adjacent to Allen Street.

Solution

Kapur designed plans to reconstruct about 1/2 mile of Allen Street to improve aesthetics and revitalize the downtown area. The water main was replaced and sanitary sewer was lined as part of the project. During utility installation, crews encountered contaminated soils that required prompt analysis to profile the contaminants and develop a plan to properly dispose of spoils.

Creative and innovative design solutions were incorporated to improve the roadway and profile without impacting adjacent properties. These solutions included varying cross slopes and adjusting roadway profile slightly, block by block, to minimize impacts on the business fronts, yet provide an economical design that improved drainage.

Results

Kapur has served as the Random Lake Municipal Engineer for more than 25 years, providing a wide array of services including wastewater treatment plant upgrades, water system planning, sanitary sewer planning, TIF districts, utility design and construction management, roadway design and construction management, site design, and environmental analysis and remediation.