Daily Pioneer News

UWP senior civil engineering students (from left to right) Brad Reents, Andrew Zwieg and Rick Guenther are working with city of Dodgeville officials on a proposal to reconstruct Ellwood Street.

PLATTEVILLE - Working in a collaborative effort with Gregory J. Lee, director of public works for Dodgeville, three University of Wisconsin-Platteville students are hoping to make a difference in this southwestern Wisconsin community. Rick Guenther, Andrew Zwieg and Brad Reents have been working on a senior design project for a proposal to reconstruct Ellwood Street from Orchard Ridge Road to Valley Street, southeast of downtown Dodgeville.

Reconstruction is necessary due to poor utility and roadway quality including deteriorated pavement and curbs, a failing water main and vehicle parking problems. According to the project proposal, this section of road is 20 years old, 750 feet long and 36 feet wide. A city park is located on the west side of the street. The engineering students have been researching replacement of the existing water main, designing a storm sewer system and diagonal parking lot, and replacing pavement along the roadway. A new on-street parking area may include up to 30 regular parking stalls and two handicapped stalls. "We want enough room for vehicles to safely maneuver in and out of the on-street parking stalls but hope to re-lay the road to match existing elevations. We used standard dimensions and recommendations from reference materials provided by professor Samuel Owusu-Ababio," said Reents.

The water main design will eventually replace existing facilities with current specifications whereas the storm sewer portion of the project required analysis of peak flow from run-off and help from UWP professor Philip Parker. "We found that the addition of the parking lot would add less than one percent to the storm water system and we'll continue to look at runoff produced to see what could happen after construction," commented Guenther, Added Zwieg, "Every time a water main breaks, the road deteriorates further and cracks. Everything is tied together in that we need to know the parking lot design to determine the storm water run-off and need to know the grading to fill in the ditch to determine the road elevation." The group claims the most important and time-consuming part of their project was the intense design work and topographic surveying which determined existing elevations and utility locations, as well as curb, gutter, pavement, driveways, houses and existing feature placement. Over an estimated 300 hours of logged time has gone into the surveying and design. "The surveying was huge but quickly taught us to work with each other as a team. Some of us had prior surveying experience we used to teach those with less experience. It took longer than expected and was definitely the biggest challenge we had to overcome," said Zwieg. "It's important to get to the point where the topographic survey is complete and the coordinate locations are entered in a computer so we can begin design work. We actually worked a lot with Eagle Point out of Dubuque, on their design software compatible with our client's," added Reents.

This particular team of students has a unique situation in that they are one of the first groups to have their plans certified and given to a contractor to build. Most senior design projects are verified a second time by another engineering firm. Commented Zwieg, "We have a huge level of responsibility and must be technically correct. The surveying was the basis for everything and took over a week's worth of field time to complete but must be as accurate as possible." Upon speaking about working with Lee and other Dodgeville officials, the students commented on the flexibility, extensive support and willingness of everyone involved to help throughout the project. All the students anticipate graduating in May 2006. Guenther is an environmental engineering major and the son of Rick and Deb Guenther of Altoona. Zwieg is a civil engineering major with an emphasis in transportation. He is the son of Jeff and Patti Zwieg of Hartland. Reents is a civil engineering major with emphases in environmental and construction. He is the son of Scott and Vicky Reents of Janesville. Following graduation, Guenther will be working for Natural Resource Technology in Pewaukee; Zwieg will be working for R.A. Smith and Associates in Brookfield; and Reents will be working for MSA Professional Services in Madison.

Contact: Samuel Owusu-Ababio, civil engineering, (608) 342-1554, owusu@uwplatt.edu; Philip Parker, civil engineering, (608) 342-1235, parkerp@uwplatt.edu

Prepared by: Rachael Lehr, UWP Public Relations, (608) 342-1194,lehrr@uwplatt.edu"