Concrete bed of Kinnickinnic River in Pulaski Park to be removed for recreational and safety upgrades

Milwaukee County's Pulaski Park will be rid of an unsafe eyesore and gain public recreational activities through a Kinnickinnic River flood control project that begins this summer.

County Supervisor Marina Dimitrijevic said she expects nothing less than "a massive improvement" from the river up to the park's hilltops after 1,900 feet of cracked and broken concrete lining the riverbed is removed and the river channel widened.

The narrow channel will be excavated up to 200 feet wide between 16th St. and the Union Pacific railroad bridge and rocks will replace deteriorated concrete on the riverbed, Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District senior project manager Patrick Elliott said.

MMSD has proposed awarding an $8.6 million contract to C.W. Purpero Inc. of Oak Creek for the work to begin this summer and be completed in 2019.

A committee of the district's commissioners will review the proposal Monday. The full commission is expected to act on the contract at its May 21 meeting.

Most of the largest trees shading the river corridor — basswood, maple, ash and locusts with trunk diameters between 20 inches and 40 inches — will be preserved under a revised widening plan, Elliott said.

RELATED:Concrete bed of Kinnickinnic River to be removed from Milwaukee County's Pulaski Park

An estimated 66,000 cubic yards of soil will be excavated and disposed of for this project. Commercial dump trunks generally hold 10 cubic yards or 14 cubic yards.

Widening the channel will require the relocation of a children's playground and a basketball court on the north end of the park, Elliott said. MMSD will pay for replacing both as part of the project.

More than a dozen students and staff from the Academy of Excellence High School in Milwaukee, a private choice school, were practicing their skills on the court on a warm spring afternoon last week. 

School groups walk a few blocks to use the court for physical education classes when the weather cooperates, said Jonathan Torres, a teacher at the high school.

"This is truly a neighborhood park," Dimitrijevic said. The "densely populated" community surrounding this park depends on it for recreation, she said.

On the same afternoon as the high schoolers filled the basketball courts, parents pushing infant strollers and families with older children swarmed the playground.

Unused tennis courts along 16th St. will be converted to futsal courts as part of the park's transformation.

Futsal is similar to 5-a-side soccer and is played on a hard-surfaced court.

"Futsal is becoming popular and there is a need for additional courts," Dimitrijevic said. Milwaukee County will reimburse MMSD for the cost of the court makeover.

The park's pedestrian bridge over the river and nearby recreational trails will be replaced after channel widening work is done.

The contractor also will open up more space beneath the city's W. Cleveland Ave. bridge at the center of the park to allow more water to flow through during floods, Elliott said. 

Apart from the physical changes to the park, the contractor will target two non-native invasive plants for removal during the channel work, said Elliott.

One of those, teasel, has taken over open hillsides on the east bank of the river south of W. Cleveland Ave. Dead stalks standing up to 6 feet tall and carrying last year's seed heads block views of the river from the park's indoor pool building.

Buckthorn spreading through a woods forms a barrier to passage on the east bank of the river north of W. Cleveland Ave.

This nuisance brush beneath the tree canopy will be cleared and replaced with shade tolerant plants and grasses, Elliott said.

A series of plant-filled swales will be dug into the steep hillside between the park's pavilion and the river. The swales will collect stormwater flowing down the hill and prevent soil and other pollutants from reaching the river.

RELATED:MMSD closing in on goal of removing 82 houses along Kinnickinnic River

MMSD's $300 million flood management plan for the Kinnickinnic River's entire 25-square-mile watershed includes removal of more than 6 miles of concrete-lined stream channel.

During heavy rainstorms, flash floods roar down the concrete channels and attract spectators. Several drowning deaths have occurred along the river since the concrete channel was built in the early 1960s.

After Pulaski Park is completed, MMSD will turn its attention upstream to Jackson Park where the lagoon or available open space will be enlisted to store floodwaters and reduce downstream flows, Elliott said.

The district and county are planning a $30 million flood control project at that park. Work is scheduled to start in 2020.

Then the district will return to the neighborhood between S. 16th St. and S. 6th streets, downstream of Pulaski Park, and remove concrete channel lining there.

To date, MMSD has acquired 78 of 83 residences it targeted for removal in that stretch of the river. Each of those 78 buildings has been removed to provide space for widening the stream for better flood control.

Around 500 feet of concrete lining of the river channel downstream of S. 6th St. had been removed in 2010. The $2.7 million flood control project included dredging contaminated muck from the stream bed and stabilizing the river bank along the entire 1,000-foot-long corridor between the S. 6th St. bridge and I-94.

"The old ways of river flood management are gone," Dimitrijevic said in support of removing the concrete.