MINOCQUA – The Town of Minocqua could be on the hook for nearly $400,000 to replace the bridge over a small dam on the Kawaguesaga Lake outlet, according to the cheapest option unveiled Thursday by representatives from Wisconsin Valley Improvement Company (WVIC).
The town board took no action on the conceptual replacement options at its special meeting, but clearly members were unhappy with the cost estimates.
Town chairman Mark Hartzheim said he would schedule a closed session of the board to discuss “strategy” to reduce those costs. “This is a starting point,” he said about future negotiations with WVIC. The concrete dam is located on Dam Lake Road, about a mile west from U.S. Highway 51.
WVIC is a privately owned company that operates the Wisconsin River Reservoir System to maintain a uniform flow for hydroelectric generation, for recreation and other resource management purposes. WVIC owns both the dam and the single-lane bridge that goes over the dam, but contends the town should share in the bridge replacement costs. There are 28 property owners who depend on the bridge as their sole access to their properties (some are vacant lots) to the west.
According to the local lake association, the current dam was built in 1917 (replacing a wood-frame dam built in 1902), making it over 100 years old.
Looking at the options
WVIC president Thomas Kipp and Kevin Hagen with AECOM Dam Operations of Stevens Point outlined the options for the board in a 90-minute meeting. As noted, no decision was made on going forward with the project, much less which option. Kipp said WVIC did some work on the bridge about four years ago, but repairs are temporary. Hagen explained the concrete slab bridge is deteriorating with concrete falling from the bottom and reinforcing bars now exposed to the elements.
The duo outlined the recommended option.
Option 1 of replacing the bridge’s superstructure would cost an estimated $664,000 in total, including construction and design. The town’s share would be $396,700 with WVIC picking up $266,500 of the cost, according to the WVIC proposal. Included in the estimate is a temporary bridge costing $146,000 for property owners and emergency services. The estimated useful life of the bridge would be 40 years. The new bridge would be 18 feet wide, about a foot and a half wider than before. (The repair “fix” narrowed the bridge travel lane to its current six feet, six-inch width.) About 100 feet of roadway on either side of the bridge would be reconstructed.
Option 2 would entail an entire new bridge with total costs of $1,373,000, including the $146,000 for the temporary bridge. The town would have to pay $1,073,000 and WVIC $300,000, under the WVIC proposal. It would be built independent of the dam structure. “The new bridge would span over the dam,” explained Hagen. “It would be about a 50-foot long, single span bridge. There would be new abutments ... constructed behind the existing dam walls.”
The life of that structure would be 75 years. The town would assume ownership and responsibility for future upkeep and repairs. Instead of the 15 miles per hour speed limit for Option 1, the bridge would be posted for 25 mph. Also, about 250 feet of roadway would be reconstructed on either side of the bridge.
Option 3 would b a culvert extension with downstream alignment, with a total package cost of $1,239,000. The town’s share would be $972,500 and WVIC’s share would be $266,500. In this case, there would be no need for a temporary bridge. “The top slab of that box culvert is basically getting a driving surface so it looks like a bridge,” Hagen said. Until the box culvert is constructed, motorists would use the existing bridge.
Town Chairman Mark Hartzheim suggested a fourth option: taking up the bridge deck and putting in precast concrete slabs. The town chairman said the town approached a property owner on the west side about allowing temporary access through that property from Kenwood Terrace, but the owner declined.
Public works director Mark Pertile said the town would want some type of guarantee that if the new bridge was built using the dam abutments, that WVIC would pick up repair costs if the abutments failed within a decade or so. Kipp said WVIC would be willing to do that.
WVIC is looking for a commitment from the town in order to put it in their 5-year project schedule. They are eyeing 2022 to do the work.
