Mayfair Road (WIS 100)

Challenge

Working as part of a joint venture for the Zoo Interchange, Kapur provided project management and roadway design for the 1.2-mile urban expansion of Mayfair Road (WIS 100) between I-94 and Watertown Plank Road.

The project was challenged by the stakeholder, real estate, utility, and traffic complexities of an urban corridor; a railroad tunnel extension; the first large scale deployment of an Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) System in the state’s history; and the project had a 17-month development time frame necessitated by the Zoo Interchange mega project.

Solution

The project design incorporated several distinctive aspects, including the use of 11-foot lanes to reduce right-of-way cost and impacts, 5-foot bike lanes per TRANS 75, the extension of the Union Pacific Railroad tunnel beneath the major intersection at Bluemound Road, a stream relocation at the Milwaukee County Research Park, adaptive signal technology, streetscaping, wayfinding, and landscaping. A two-way multi-use trail was a last-minute addition to the plans after PS&E. The multi-use trail was incorporated into the design between Bluemound Road and the Hank Aaron State trail to provide a connection to the Milwaukee County Zoo.

To accommodate the expansion from a six-lane divided roadway to an eight-lane facility, the west curb line was held, and the widening generally occurred to the east where there was available space. To allow the large-diameter storm sewer work to begin earlier, the storm sewer trunk line was placed along the northbound side of the roadway where this widening would occur. This approach took the large diameter storm sewer off the critical path and decreased overall construction duration.

Through the public involvement process, we received input from local businesses that the best way to minimize the impacts was to condense the construction timeframe to only one construction season. A unique partnership was developed with the business community so that intense traffic impacts, such as short-term intersection closures, were tightly scheduled so businesses could use the downtime to coordinate remodeling or other improvements. Consequently, the high-traffic intersections at Bluemound Road and Watertown Plank Road were constructed with only 12-day and 10-day full closures, respectively, which helped further reduce construction duration.

Results

Ultimately, the Mayfair Road project was bid within 1% of the engineer’s estimate, and it was completed on time and within 2% of the let amount. The project received several awards including WisDOT’s Excellence in Highway Design Winner, the American Concrete Pavement Association Gold Award, and was named a Top Project of 2014 by the Daily Reporter.