Formatted Title:

DIVRs Overboard in the Milwaukee River during Sediment Removal in Third Ward

Background/Objectives:

Milwaukee Wisconsin’s Third Ward has seen a dramatic redevelopment moving from its heavy industrial past to a residential and entertainment district. Part of that industrial past included a former manufactured gas plant (MGP) site along the east shore of the Milwaukee River. The remediation strategy employed a combination of hydraulic dredging and sediment capping to address approximately 44,000 cubic yards of impacted sediments along a 0.6-mile stretch of the Milwaukee River. The dredged sediments were transported by conduit to the Jones Island Dredged Materials Disposal Facility (DMDF) where a temporary sediment dewatering system, water treatment plant, and geotextile dewatering tubes received, managed, and treated the dredge stream and sediments.

The 0.6-mile stretch of the Milwaukee River has been redeveloped into condominiums, apartments, and restaurants; is intersected by highly trafficked bridges; and bordered the entire length by the City of Milwaukee’s River Walk. The DMDF is in Milwaukee Harbor, immediately adjacent to the west by a major interstate highway and to the south Milwaukee’s high-speed ferry service to Grand Haven, Michigan. Because the work areas are so close to the general public and residents, the project team implemented very robust air, turbidity, structural, settlement, vibration, and noise monitoring programs to be protective of the community and critical structures.

Approach/Activities:

To achieve successful monitoring of the surrounding sensitive receptors and infrastructure, 20 air monitors, 14 vibration monitors, 11 noise monitors, 12 tilt sensors, four turbidity barges, three robotic automated total stations, two meteorological stations, and over 75 optical survey targets were installed in the target work zones. In addition, confirmatory air samples for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were taken three times a week, intended to support the real-time monitoring, and to provide analytical data that were compared against site-specific, risk-based calculations to assess potential community exposure. Results of the monitoring and sampling were reported to the client and project stakeholders on a weekly basis.

With such a vast data collection from the various instrumentation equipment and samples over the 7-month project period, and the need for quick access to real-time data as the project progressed, the only way that we could achieve this was through use of an in-house data platform called DIVR.

Results/Lessons Learned:

GEI’s design and implementation of the construction monitoring plans were successfully achieved by having real-time and analytical data come through to a centralized online platform. Installing the equipment for this scale of monitoring required months of planning, and field support from multiple offices from within the company and from subcontractors. The volume of samples collected on a weekly basis required close communication and management of resources.

Christopher Gordon

Affiliation

Refine Results

(Group 2, Poster Board #74) DIVRs Overboard in the Milwaukee River during Sediment Removal in Third Ward