By Phil Gabler, City of Madison Engineering
An innovative underground screen structure in design for Wingra Park will offer the public a peek at what debris can be kept out of the lake, while providing treatment to an area of the Wingra watershed that is currently receiving almost no treatment.
The underground device will be installed near the Arbor Drive Circle on the west edge of Wingra Park. The structure will be completely underground and marked by a butterfly garden on top.
The screen structure will capture road grit, leaves and trash before it can enter Lake Wingra. Water quality modeling of the device predicts that it will capture 36 pounds of phosphorus and 7 tons of sediment each year. To put this into perspective, Monroe Street contributes 18 pounds of phosphorus and 4 tons of sediment to Lake Wingra each year. The material collected in the device will be vacuumed out periodically.
The screen structure is a step towards implementing the Wingra Watershed Plan and provides treatment to an area of the Wingra watershed that is currently receiving almost no treatment. An additional feature of the screen structure will be the installation of view ports within the garden that will allow park visitors to peek inside and see what material has been collected. The design and placement of the screen structure has been a collaborative effort between the City’s Engineering Department, the Parks Department and citizens participating in the public input process for the Monroe Street Reconstruction Project.