County gearing up for Saukville preserve project

An Ozaukee County committee last week recommended approving a contract for design and engineering services for the Milwaukee River Oxbow Nature Preserve restoration project along Highway W in Saukville.

Madison-based Fish Creek Restoration will be paid as much as $63,975 to provide design and engineering services for the project to help alleviate flooding on Highway W and recreate the historic oxbow floodplain for the Milwaukee River there.

The cost includes a 15% contingency. The funds are provided from the federal Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant.

Fish Creek Restoration has provided design and engineering support for several other county projects, including the Milwaukee River Mequon-Thiensville Dam fishway, Mineral Springs Creek in Port Washington, Sucker Brook in the towns of Belgium and Port Washington, Silver Beach Creek in the Town of Belgium and Tendick Creek in the Town of Saukville.

Fish Creek Restoration was among four  firms that responded to a request for proposals issued to 31 firms in early April, county Planning and Parks Director Andrew Struck told the Natural Resources Committee last week.

The oxbow and highway project has been awarded more than $2.4 million in state and federal grants,

Plans call for moving Highway W, or Riverside Drive, which floods almost annually, slightly to the east and installing culverts to allow water from the Milwaukee River to flow under the roadway into a low-lying oxbow. Doing so will alleviate some of the flooding but not all, officials say.

The oxbow will become a passive county park that will include fishing access, a kayak launch, trails and a small parking area.

The county is in the process of purchasing about 67 acres from private landholders. In addition, the Village of Saukville has contributed 3.54 acres of village-owned land to the project.

Work involving the Oxbow will start this summer, and the reconstruction of the highway will start this winter or next spring, county Highway Commissioner Jon Edgren said.