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[Music playing]

Faith: We're up at Villa Mann Creek


today, and it's the upper part of the


Kinnickinnic watershed. It's a


recently completed project where the


cement line channel has been replaced


with a more natural stream. And it's


part of a very large project for the


expansion of the Interstate 94 from


the Illinois State Border up till


Milwaukee. I have with me Bill and


Karla from the Wisconsin Department of


Transportation. Bill, could you give a


little history of the project and


what's special about it?


Bill: Sure. This project was started


in approximately 2005 with the study


of reconstructing the Interstate, as


you said Interstate 94, from Illinois

through the Mitchell Interchange here


in Milwaukee. It encompasses the


freeway through three counties –


Kenosha County, Racine County, and


Milwaukee County. Again, its 35 miles


long, approximate cost is $1.9


billion. What we will do is we will


add an additional lane in each


direction, the whole quarter length.


And as part of that we are also


reconstructing 17 interchanges as well


as a system interchange, which is an


interchange where two freeways come together.


And that, you can hear it in the


background, that freeway noise, that


is the Mitchell Interchange. We have


approximately over 200,000 vehicles


utilize that interchange. One of the


unique features of this project is it


is both a rural and an urban freeway


reconstruction project, and included


with that is what you see here, the


Villa Mann pre-restoration. This was


an urban channel, a concrete line


channel, as well as some rural areas,


and with help from Karla and our


design team, we have done what you see


here, the realignment and


reconstruction of a stream.


Faith: What are some of the


considerations of the site, Karla,


that you had to do with this


particular location?


Karla: Well, what's unusual about this


particular stream and location is that


we don't usually work in live channel.


Typically what we do is we go off


alignment and reconstruct a new


channel. In this instance, we've


worked with Sewer Pac who is Tom


Slawski, and we've worked with a


consultant who does the design and


then of course the DNR. And we all


work together on different components.


Here we not only took out all of the


concrete in a section of the channel,


but in addition to that we were able


to do another section of natural


meandering. And then we created a lot


of flood plain and from that we're


able to work with regulatory


compliance and get some wetland


mitigation credits.


So within the flood plain we have a


wet meadow, and then we also have like


an upland prairie buffer. And what


that is critical for is this helps


with dealing with flat issues in the


community especially in an urban area.


And it also provides a lot of habitat


for critters, and it's more natural


than it was before.


Faith: And you did that all within


some pretty narrow constraints still


for the existing residential areas on


the site too.


Karla: Yes, and we try to maximize as


much acquisition as we could to create


flood plain, but as you can see in


this area we are pretty constrained.


Faith: Let's go take a closer look.


[Music playing]


[End of Audio]

Title: Reconstructing streams in zones of freeway expansion, Villa Mann Creek, Wisconsin

Description:

Faith Fitzpatrick (U.S. Geological Survey), Bill Mohr (Wisconsin Department of Transportation), and Karla Leithoff (Wisconsin Department of Transportation) describe the floodplain, wetland, and channel restoration aspects.

Location: WI, Villa Mann Creek, USA

Date Taken: 11/17/2010

Length: 3:57

Video Producer: Douglas A. Harned , National Water-Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA), USGS, North Carolina Water Science Center, Raleigh, NC

Note: This video has been released into the public domain by the U.S. Geological Survey for use in its entirety. Some videos may contain pieces of copyrighted material. If you wish to use a portion of the video for any purpose, other than for resharing/reposting the video in its entirety, please contact the Video Producer/Videographer listed with this video. Please refer to the USGS Copyright section for how to credit this video.

Additional Video Credits:

Faith Fitzpatrick: Scriptwriter, Narrator, Scientist Consultant

Gerard McMahon: Producer

Douglas Harned: Producer, Video, Editor

Alan Cressler: Video

Luke McMahon: Video

Bill Mohr (Wisconsin Department of Transportation)

Karla Leithoff (Wisconsin Department of Transportation)

File Details:

• Quicktime
• Flash Video
• W3C Timed-Text captions file
• YouTube version *
• Text transcript

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Tags: AquaticEcology DouglasHarned EUSE Ecosystems FaithFitzpatrick Habitat Hydrology NAWQA StreamRehabilitation StreamRestoration USGS Urbanization VillaMannCreek WIDOT WaterQuality WaterResourceManagement Wisconsin