The City of Green Bay received a Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grant from the EPA to install permeable pavement and bio-retention ponds to provide treatment of storm water prior to discharging to the Bay of Green Bay. Robert E. Lee & Associates worked with the City to design a parking lot for Bay Beach Amusement Park that utilized “green” storm water features. The final project consisted of a 5-acre parking lot that was treated by permeable pavement, with a walking trail connecting the parking lot to the park, which is treated by a series of bio-retention ponds to provide storm water storage and pollutant removal. For the permeable pavement, the final design utilized permeable asphalt pavement, which was found at the time to be the most cost-effective option compared to permeable concrete and permeable pavers.

Advantages of using permeable pavement in this situation included that no additional area outside of the footprint of the parking lot was needed for storm water management. This saved the City roughly 0.25 acres of space that did not need to be allocated to a more traditional storm water management Best Management Practice (BMP) such as a wet detention pond. The perceived safety hazards associated with wet detention ponds near a park and small children were also completely avoided. Permeable pavement was the perfect storm water solution to be used at the amusement park, balancing cost with safety considerations.

This project consisted of the construction of a 10,000 square-foot Cobblestone Hotel. A wet detention pond was constructed to provide storm water management for the development. Robert E. Lee & Associates worked with the developer to develop the site layout and provide detailed civil site plans and a detailed storm water management plan.

The Town of Oconto, located in Oconto County, retained Robert E. Lee & Associates (REL) to help them with the planning, development, and construction of a new town hall. The existing town hall was small, obsolete, in poor condition and needed to be replaced. REL helped the town with a needs study and helped them through the planning process. The new town hall was constructed at the corner of STH 22 and Cream City Road. The 2,430 square-foot structure included a large meeting room, offices for town officials, storage, and a catering room. REL completed the survey, site design, storm water and erosion control plan, building design, bidding, and construction oversight for the project.

Robert E. Lee & Associates collaborated with the Baird Creek Preservation Foundation and the City of Green Bay to design a storm water feature to reduce storm water flows, prevent erosion of the downstream Baird Creek, and remove pollutants. The final pond design featured an artificial wetland pond with small permanent water pools and a variety of native wetland plants. The pond effectively reduces peak flows and removes pollutants from a 100-acre drainage basin within the City. The project, minimizing permanent water surface, benefited the adjacent park space from a safety perspective, and helped reduce the thermal impact created by the permanent water pool of a wet pond. Close coordination was required with the City, foundation, and neighborhood association to create a Best Management Practice that has minimal impact on the surrounding area.

R2E2, or Resource Recovery and Electrical Energy Project, consisted of a new solids handling facility including anaerobic digesters, electrical generation and nutrient recovery. REL designed the site utilities, site work, and artificial wetland storm water pond. Construction Services was provided for all phases of the project.

Robert E. Lee & Associates worked with the City of De Pere to analyze storm water needs in their East Industrial Park. In order to prepare for new growth, existing detention pond FE260B was evaluated to improve the storm water quality discharged and a new pond, FE270A, was created to treat runoff from approximately 23 acres. The drainage basins analyzed included areas of existing development and redevelopment.

Robert E. Lee & Associates worked with the owner to develop the site layout and provide the detailed civil site plans for the Grand Central Station gas station in the City of De Pere. The project consisted of the construction of a gas station, car wash, and associated parking lot. A storm water plan was developed to provide treatment from the pump stations and remainder of the development.

Kinnard Farms Inc. was planning for a large expansion of their Dairy Farm located in the Town of Lincoln. The expansion would be a second facility on a new site. The first step in the expansion was selecting a site. REL engineers and ecologist reviewed many sites with the owners of Kinnard Farms to find a site that was reasonably close to the existing Dairy and did not impact wetlands or waterways. Site 2 would be located on approximately 160 acres of land, about 1/4 mile north of the existing farm. With the site location set, REL began working with Kinnard Farms on the overall facility layout to include potential barn and parlor locations, waste and feed storage facilities, runoff controls systems, and site grading and drainage. The soils testing revealed on-site soils were not suitable for a clay-lined waste storage facility. The cost of importing soils from another location was excessive; therefore, Kinnard Farms selected reinforced concrete for the waste storage lagoons. A total of three storage cells were constructed providing approximately 78,000,000 gallons of storage. Other permitted facilities include approximately 22 acres of feed storage, an 8.26-acre Vegetated Treatment Area to treat storm water runoff from the feed storage pad, waste transfer piping and a pump station that pumps the first flush from the feed storage facility to the waste storage facility (WSF). REL also designed the storm water drainage system for the facility that includes ditches, storm sewer, and a detention pond that reduce the peak flow from the farm to be equal or less than the peak flows that existed prior to development of the farm.