Wisconsin Builder | Top Projects of 2002

Sight Unseen

McShane tank solves community flooding

McShane Underground Storage Facility Muskego

By Chris Thompson

There are more than 14 million pounds of concrete and 276 tons of reinforcing steel sitting beneath a baseball field in Muskego, and the average baseball player would never know it's there.

But the community surrounding Bluhm Park knows full well about the 1.7 million gallon McShane Underground Storage Facility if for no other reason than its existence has solved the chronic basement flooding problems that plagued the area.

And that's exactly what Ruekert-Mielke Inc., Waukesha, set out to do in constructing the 390-foot-long by 40-foot-wide wastewater-storage tank. The company needed to attack an obvious problem with an invisible solution, considering that the only location for the new tank was right next to the existing pumping station at Bluhm Park.

"The city didn't want to give up the parkland, and it wanted to make sure that the capacity could handle a worst-case scenario," said Mary Nowakowski, Ruekert-Mielke public relations coordinator. "So the logical design solution was to take the tank underground. The site really determined what it was going to be. It had to be there, and it had to be underground."

Breaking new ground

It also had to be a first of its kind in southeast Wisconsin, she said. Ruekert-Mielke's tank is fairly common in Europe but virtually unheard of in Wisconsin.

"The Deep Tunnel in Milwaukee is, indeed, underground storage, but this is designed to hold overflow until it can be processed," Nowakowski said. "The overflow can be released at a slow rate. It has a series of gates that can be closed, and it doesn't flood (the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District) with a whole bunch of capacity all at one time."

Because it's a man-made structure, it's fully waterproofed, she said, marking another difference between McShane and other underground storage tanks. Others, such as the Deep Tunnel, have fracture zones that allow water seepage.

"There is no infiltration into this tank at all," Nowakowski said.

Project Name: McShane Underground Storage Facility
Location: Muskego
Submitting Company: Ruekert-Mielke Inc., Waukesha
General Contractor/Construction Manager: Ruekert-Mielke Inc., Waukesha
Architect: No Architect
Engineer: Ruekert-Mielke Inc., Waukesha
Owner: City of Muskego
Project Cost: $3.13 million
Start Date: June 2002
Completion Date: December 2002

But endeavoring to break the mold for underground tanks brought with it challenges for Ruekert-Mielke. The first popped up when the company sought state approval from the Department of Natural Resources.

"Getting project approval was a challenge because the project didn't fit any of their project categories," Nowakowski said. "We just had to go in with the design and say, 'This is what it will accomplish.'"

And when company planners took a closer look at the site, they realized that the high-water mark in the park would push the tank to nearly surface level.

"I think one of the biggest challenges was the fact that the groundwater level was 2 feet underground," Nowakowski said. "We didn't want the tank to float. That sounds ridiculous, but the groundwater table was so high. So they did calculations based on the tank capacity and its location, and the top of the tank is pretty close to grade."

But with the project complete, area basements dry and baseball players still hitting the long ball, she said the challenges were worth it.

"McShane is pretty impressive," Nowakowski said. "The project really went on plan and on schedule."

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