Complex Project is No Fish Story

Even the best fishermen have the dream of, just once, casting a line into the teeming pond of a fish hatchery. But keep your fantasies to yourself, bud – it ain't gonna happen.

To even get to the point of toting your pole and tackle to the fish hatchery, it has to be built. Here's where Badger Environmental & Earthworks, Inc., Westby, Wis. fit in. They are currently finishing up Phase II of the 160-acre Wild Rose State Fish Hatchery located in Wild Rose, Wis.—straddling State Highway 22. Wild Rose is 50 miles west of Appleton. When complete and operational, the fish hatchery will be raising more trout and salmon than any other hatchery in the country. The location will eventually produce musky, sturgeon and walleye to test anglers statewide.

Badger Environmental & Earthworks is a small, contractor specializing in sewer and water, and site development projects within an approximately 150-mile radius of Westby. The company has about 20 employees and a fleet of approximately 25 pieces of heavy equipment.

"David Bean formed the company in 1998 and focused on installing sewer and water lines," states Kent Nelson, foreman and machine operator for Badger Environmental. "I'm a dirt guy, so when I joined the company about six years ago, we were able to grow into site work."

With the experience and expertise that Badger Environmental & Earthworks posses they were able to win the $11 million bid for the large, complex Wild Rose fish hatchery project. But it was a bit, admittedly, a bit like a mouse eating an elephant, when looking at this complete start-to-finish project. "We first had to clear and haul away all trees, shrubs, and brush from the site before leveling and compaction," Nelson says. "We used an excavator to grub the trees and an excavator with a grub rake to consolidate piles, as well as a dozer to clear the site." The rough work was completed in two weeks.

Phase I was the cold water project that included site prep for a pavilion housing four fish raceways that each measure 100 feet long by 50 feet wide. Additionally, the building will also contain water processing, recirculation, and pumping equipment. "We use an excavator to dig all the footings and for trenching for the electrical and plumbing supply lines," Nelson states. The soil conditions throughout the site are sandy with occasional large rocks.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) commissioned the project and Miron Construction, Neenah, Wis., was the general contractor. WDNR provided a paper site plan for Phase I. The site plan was developed by Liesh Companies, Madison, Wis., HDR Fishpro, Omaha, Nebraska, and Isthmus Architecture, Madison, Wis.

"We didn't have our GPS machine control system until Phase II, so we used at least $5,000 worth of lathe, ribbon, and paint and hundreds of hours to stake everything from a surveyor's baseline and using the building corners once they were established," says Nelson. "Never, ever will we tackle any projects—especially one of this magnitude— without a digital site plan, a GPS rover, and GPS machine control …never will we do it again."

For the cool-water Phase II, Badger Environmental worked with their local Trimble dealer, FABCO Equipment, Inc., Madison, Wis. to select the appropriate technology. "We knew Phase II would be a huge undertaking and that an investment in GPS technology would pay off," says Nelson. "Plus we had all of our equipment and a site trailer already there. We already knew the site so it made sense for us to bid on Phase II. I convinced my boss that if we won the bid, we'd need GPS to do it right"

After they won the $17 million bid, Badger Environmental purchased two Cat® ARO D5K Track-Type Tractors. The machines came equipped with the Cat AccuGrade™ dual GPS systems. A Trimble® SPS851 Modular GPS Receiver was used for the base station, and a Trimble SPS881 Smart GPS Antenna mounted on a range poll was used for a range of site positioning, measuring and grade checking.

Using the GPS-based machine control and site positioning solutions, Nelson reports that there was no need for any of the staking and stringlines they required on the first phase. "We saved thousands of hours and dollars using the Cat AccuGrade and Trimble systems. Plus, we caught several inconsistencies shown on the paper plan that would have required costly rework and/or delays to fix." Additionally, Nelson mentions that the AccuGrade technology allows them to complete work faster and more accurately. "Plus, we saved immensely on the volume of material used throughout the project."

Phase II of the Wild Rose State Fish Hatchery included 14 fishponds—six half-acre size and eight one-acre ponds. The ponds are all eight-feet deep and have 3:1 slopes. The half-acre size ponds each measure 231 feet by 138 feet. The one-acre ponds measure 324 feet by 176 feet. Additionally the site plan called for a large detention pond and a 1.5-acre clean water reservoir. And there are miles of roads and finished landscaping that were a part of the project. Northeast Asphalt, Appleton, Wis. completed all of the paving.

"What made the project complex and where the Cat AccuGrade systems helped immensely was that we laid 28,000 feet of pipe ranging from one-inch inside diameter to 36-inch inside diameter," states Nelson. "These were for everything from oxygen lines, main pipes, to drainage lines that were laid in layers. Every line serves a purpose and has to run at precise elevations and accommodate certain gallons-per-minute volumes."

Nelson concludes, "Accounting for that incredible maze of piping was probably the biggest challenge we faced on the project. But as you look at the finished ponds they are perfectly shaped and precisely graded – it's a beautiful site." And, likely, an ideal start for the lunkers that will be caught from Lake Michigan or from any of Wisconsin's lakes.