Underwood Creek in Wauwatosa is getting a makeover

Restoration is underway and the bulldozers and power shovels in the creek are a welcome sight.

For now you can still see some of the concrete that until recently has lined much of Underwood Creek like a straightjacket for over forty years. The channel, once so smooth and straight I’ve seen skateboarders on it in dry weather, is pocked with holes and severely cracked. Jackhammers have been working their way downstream towards the confluence with the Menomonee River near North Avenue.

View from Hansen Golf Course of the east end of the existing channel.

Upstream the work is further along. West of 102^nd Street, where the creek is sandwiched between Fisher Parkway and a very active railroad line, all of the concrete has been removed and trucked away to be recycled. Bulldozers, excavators and earthmovers have reshaped the streambed, reintroducing meandering curves. Tons of rock have been laboriously deposited to stabilize the new channel and prevent erosion.

Work in progress on the newly restored and meandering creek bed.

Oddly enough the incongruous sight of huge power shovels squatting in the streambed is a welcome one—a long overdue remediation of the outdated and discredited policy of “channelizing” rivers and streams. The idea behind pouring concrete into waterways, popular in the Milwaukee region in the 1960s, was to move stormwater quickly through neighborhoods in an attempt to minimize flooding.

Houses along Fisher Parkway back onto the creek channel.

Unfortunately for everyone, the solution became increasingly obsolete as the problem of flooding was exacerbated by unrelenting new development upstream from the channels. Until recent implementation of more effective stormwater management techniques and policies, new development has led to increased stormwater entering—and more frequently breaching—the channels.

Pumps at the upstream end of the project divert creek water into pipes.

Of course, pouring concrete into rivers has always been devastating to the rivers themselves—along with the fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and other wildlife that depend on healthy waterways and riparian habitats for their survival. The suffering of plants and animals in degraded river systems is accompanied by a diminished quality of life for the human communities that surround them. And so it has come to this, that we need—and desire—bulldozers in the creek to correct our past mistakes.

View of Underwood Creek channel looking west from 115^th Street.

This project, which began in November 2016, will remove 4,400 linear feet of concrete between Mayfair Road and North Avenue. The work is being overseen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in partnership with Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) and could be complete as early as this fall.

Previously restored section of Underwood Creek along Mayfair Road.

The current Underwood Creek project is part of a longer-term effort to address up-to-date stormwater issues, improve water quality, restore and naturalize the creek, increase fish passage and rehabilitate wildlife habitats. Another section of Underwood Creek just upstream from the new project was previously restored. There also are plans to undertake feasibility studies for channel removal on additional sections west and south of Mayfair Road.

MMSD has undertaken similar channel restoration projects on all three of Milwaukee’s major watersheds. These have included completed projects on Lincoln Creek and the Menomonee River as well as its huge on-going Kinnickinnic River Project.

View of the pipe from the underground passage at Hansen Golf Course.

One of the more fascinating aspects of this work, at least for me, is how the normal flow of water in the stream is handled during demolition and restoration. If you peek through the passage beneath the railroad at Hansen Golf Course you may be startled to see a large black pipe suspended in the air across your field of vision. Although rain and snowmelt still fill the channel on occasion, this pipe, which snakes all the way alongside the creek, carries the normal dry weather flow.

The pipe that holds creek flow running along the project site.

The best news I’ve heard yet about this project was from one of the construction workers at the site. “It’s already working,” he told me. “We’ve had to rescue half a dozen salmon that swam up and got stuck in here.”

A restored section of the creek within the project site.

A slightly edited version of this story was published by Milwaukee Magazine on March 27, 2017. 

Kayaking the Menomonee with Milwaukee Riverkeeper

This week Milwaukee Riverkeeper hosted the second in a series of three kayaking expeditions. Each has been meant to explore one of Milwaukee's three rivers. The first, in July, headed up the Milwaukee River. This time it was the Menomonee. The third will tour the Kinnickinnic River on September 30. (For information or to register, click here.) 

Jennifer Bolger Breceda, Milwaukee Riverkeeper's new Executive Director joined us for the tour guided by Cheryl Nenn, who is the official riverkeeper. Thanks go out to the Milwaukee Kayak Company for supplying the kayaks and supporting Riverkeeper.

I went along to document the event and to provide a water's-eye view of the Menomonee Valley.  Here is my photo essay.

We put in off the Milwaukee Kayak Co. slip at 318 S. Water St., near the rustic (and rusty) railroad swivel bridge in the Milwaukee River.

It was a beautiful evening and we were passed by several cruise lines before we reached the Menomonee River.

Two of our expedition beneath the railroad bridge at the confluence of the Menomonee with the Milwaukee.

The 2nd St. Bridge follows immediately after the RR bridge.

Instead of proceeding up the Menomonee proper, we turned the corner into the Menomonee Canal and past the Harley Davidson Museum.

The Global Water Center from the water.

Paddling past the Reed Street Yards.

The newly opened Hank Aaron State Trail ramp provides access from the Sixth Street Bridge down to the Reed Street Yards segment of the trail.

Brandon is one of the Milwaukee Kayak Co. staff.

Beth is the owner of Milwaukee Kayak Co.

Cheryl Nenn, Milwaukee Riverkeeper, provided a running commentary as we paddled.

Jennifer Bolger Breceda, Executive Director of Milwaukee Riverkeeper as we entered the Burnham Canal.

There are a few additional photos of the event in my Menomonee Valley flickr album.

(Full disclosure: I was formerly on the board of Milwaukee Riverkeeper.)

This post is one in a series that relates to my Menomonee Valley Artist in Residency. For more information about the residency and links to previous posts and photographs, go to MV AiR.