March 2006

Mead & Hunt’s environmental team takes on unique Runway Safety Area project

Environmental impact is a term that easily attracts the attention of the public as well as the media.  Sometimes this attention is welcomed; other times it’s something an airport would like to avoid.  Such was the case at Dane County Regional Airport (DCRA) in Madison, Wisconsin.  Recently Mead & Hunt, an architectural and engineering firm based in Madison, embarked on an ambitious plan to bring the safety area of Runway 13/31 inline with FAA standards.  The airport’s non-compliant Runway Safety Area (RSA) was identified in the FAA’s 2000 RSA determination.  Improving a safety area is often a complex process, but when it involves moving a two-lane county highway, more than a mile of creek bed, a perimeter road, and an active rail line into a wetland, the situation becomes more difficult.

When Mead & Hunt project managers were first approached with this project they knew it had the potential to create negative publicity, but in the end they solved it brilliantly. 

“Getting every relevant agency involved with this project and getting them on the same page was a big step for us,” said Laura Morland, Project Manager for Mead & Hunt.  In all, Mead & Hunt coordinated with ten federal, state, and local agencies, as well as local environmental groups over a three-year period to get this job done.  The results were interesting.

The first hurdle Mead & Hunt had to contend with was the geography just north of the airfield, which includes Cherokee Marsh.  Engineers and scientists had to wrestle with improving the safety of DCRA while also protecting this very sensitive environmental area.  Moving the rail line through a wetland area was potentially very controversial, but Mead & Hunt was able to coordinate efforts with several agencies to develop a comprehensive mitigation plan, which allowed the team to move the rail with minimal environmental impacts.  The final plans determined that a 3,100-foot railroad land bridge would allow free passage of water beneath the rail alignment, while a runoff overpass was designed in another part of the project to avoid adverse secondary wetland impacts.  Construction of the bridge began during the winter of 2004 when the peat was frozen in order to reduce construction-related impacts on the wetlands.  Bridge construction was performed from the bridge itself, keeping construction equipment out of the marsh and preventing damage to this sensitive area.  With a work crew on each end of the bridge, the contractor has constructed two spans each week in order to complete the 112-span structure on schedule.

The rail line was not the only challenge presented to Mead & Hunt’s environmental professionals during the RSA improvements.  Starkweather Creek that winds its way around the airport would also need careful attention while it was being diverted.  This creek in particular is of great importance to the area due to its outflow into a popular area lake.  Water quality enhancements and providing flood storage were primary objectives.  Mead & Hunt’s solution included planting dogwood trees along the newly designed creek bed.  These trees help keep the water shaded and cool which improves water quality.  Engineers included specific flood storage measures that will help detain runoff from heavy rains to prevent flooding.

This is not the first time Mead & Hunt has worked on water quality improvements at DCRA and the Starkweather Creek.  A few years ago the firm designed a system to capture and treat storm water contaminated with deicing fluids.  The storm water collection system was redesigned to direct storm water runoff from the aircraft deicing areas to a treatment basin and to divert uncontaminated storm water to the creek.  The treatment basin has a storage volume of two million gallons and is aerated using two 40-horsepower blowers and 60 stainless steel course bubble diffusers.  A pump station was installed to pump contaminated storm water to the sanitary sewer.  Storm water contaminated with deicing fluids is treated in the basin during the deicing season (October through May).  Supplemental nutrients are added to facilitate biological removal of the deicing fluids.  The storm water in the basin can be pumped to the sanitary sewer for disposal if additional storage capacity is needed prior to adequate removal of the deicing fluids.  Once the storm water in the basin meets the discharge water quality requirements, it is discharged from the basin to the adjacent creek.  This design by Mead & Hunt was the first of its kind in the Midwest.

Aside from the environmental work going on at DCRA there is also an impressive engineering aspect to this RSA project, which involves moving a busy two-lane county highway and constructing a new railroad crossing without disrupting traffic.  The highway is heavily traveled by commuters, handling nearly 10,000 vehicles every day. 

“Shutting this road down for a month would have been preferable but was never an option,” said Dave Elder, a Project Engineer for Mead & Hunt.  It was determined that a secondary and temporary road would need to be built in order to reroute traffic so construction crews were free to build a new railroad crossing and lay the ground work for the new highway. 

“Currently the highway project is nearly 75 percent complete, when fully completed it’s not just the airport that will enjoy improved safety, but commuters as well,” said Elder.  Mead & Hunt’s redesign of the county highway includes removing a sharp turn that has been the site of several vehicle accidents.

Upon successful completion of this environmental process and mitigation design, the Mead & Hunt team was honored by special recognition of their efforts by the Wisconsin Secretary of Transportation and the Deputy Director of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Mead & Hunt professionals have expertise in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and other federal, state, and local regulation related to airports.  Their high-quality environmental documents for airports, including those in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota, endure stringent federal, state, and local agency review processes.

Mead & Hunt’s environmental specialists offer a wide range of technical services.  Their airport environmental services staff includes environmental engineers, planners, noise specialists, wetland specialists, biological specialists, architectural historians, and air and water quality experts.  Solid, comprehensive planning in the early stages of a project provides adequate time to resolve potential environmental problems.