Exploratory dredge at Lake Koshkonong to boost boat access

KOSHKONONG — This is one time when low water won’t be a problem at Lake Koshkonong.
In fact, it’s the big break that state, federal and Rock-Koshkonong Lake District officials say they have been waiting for.
Lake district Chairman Brian Christianson says this year’s drought has lowered shoreline water levels at Lake Koshkonong to near-historic lows of two feet or less.
If the winter brings a hard freeze, Christianson said conditions will be ideal for the lake district to begin an “exploratory” dredge project at the lake’s far northeast end.
The project, which could start as early as mid-January, would include dredging to clear out a silted-in boat landing at the end of North Shore Road and construction of a 500-foot rock breakwater farther south to armor a fragile shoreline that divides Lake Koshkonong and Mud Lake.
Mud Lake is a wetland east of the lake that officials consider a premier fish hatchery for walleye and northern pike.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have been working with the lake district the last two years to plan and write permits for the project, which the district plans to pay for.
Now, the district is meeting with townships around the lake to galvanize road agreements to allow excavating traffic to access lakefront roads. It likely will choose a contractor for the project by Jan. 10.
Depending on weather conditions, it could cost anywhere from $200,000 to $400,000 for the project, Christianson said.
“We need the lake to freeze and stay frozen. Trucks will be over two feet of water, with two feet of muck below it. We need a good solid freeze for scrapers and dump trucks to get out there and move around on a trail,” Christianson said.
The purpose of the project is to improve boating access and safety and to protect wildlife and the ecosystem along the fragile shoreline at Lake Koshkonong.
“This project has created quite a buzz around the lake,” Christianson said. “It really has brought all the user groups together in support from the duck hunters, ice fisherman and recreational boaters.”
A key part of the project, Christianson said, will be to dump spoils from the dredged boat landing behind the rock breakwater, which is about two-thirds of a mile south of the boat landing.
Christianson said officials hope that the breakwater and dredge spoils will slow wave erosion of the fragile shore between the Lake Koshkonong and Mud Lake and help to regenerate protective aquatic plant growth and habitat alongshore.
The project could become a model for future dredges and breakwaters around the lake, Christianson said.
“If we can demonstrate that this dredged area does not fill back in, or it fills back in at a slower rate that makes it cost effective, then we could later do breakwalls in other spots to keep sediment from floating around and refilling in. It would be a ‘one and done’ deal,” he said.
Christianson said earlier public hearings on the project helped the lake district to designate other residential shoreline areas, such as the Vine Ha Ha subdivision on the southeast end of the lake, for future dredges.
The project also included a grant-funded project to fix carp gates at a creek that connects Mud Lake to Lake Koshkonong. That work is grant-funded, and could cost about 100,000, Christianson said.
The whole project’s poised even as the Lake District and the DNR await the state Supreme Court’s ruling on water levels at Lake Koshkonong. The DNR and the district are in disagreement over how to use the downstream Indianford Dam to maintain water levels at the lake.
Christianson said the dredge project should show the public the lake district and the DNR can cooperate.
“This is a necessary step to demonstrate that the lake district can work with the Wisconsin DNR and the Army Corps in a cooperative, fruitful way,” Christianson said.
Christianson said summer boaters and sportsmen alike seem excited about the project.
“I know when they see trucks out on the ice, they’ll say, ‘We’re finally doing something other than going to the next level of court challenges,’” he said.

---

Published at: http://www.GazetteXtra.com/news/2012/dec/30/exploratory-dredge-koshkonong-boost-boat-access-ha/

Lake Koshkonong Dredging and Cooperation with Town of Koshkonong

Kim-

As we discussed, we would like to brief the Town Board at their meeting scheduled for Jan 9 on the Lake Koshkonong Dredging and Shoreline Restoration Project, located in the Town of Sumner, and to understand the agreements that would be required by the Town of Koshkonong for use of North Shore Road from the Sumner boundary to STH 106 for construction equipment and materials transport.  We understand that North Shore Road has been designated by the Town as a 12 ton road. 

This project is being constructed by the Rock Koshkonong Lake District, supported by cost share funding from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.   Montgomery Associates is the design engineer for the project, working for the Lake District.  The project includes dredging at the North Shore Launch Ramp and fill to create wetlands further south, all within the Town of Sumner.  Our project is currently out to bid, with bids due back on Jan 9.  The heavy construction work is anticipated to be completed in January and February of 2013. 

The project is intended to provide a "win-win" approach to navigational access dredging on the shallow shorelines of Lake Koshkonong, with use of the dredge spoil material to replace areas of lost wetland on adjacent shorelines. In this case, we are dredging approximately 3500 yd.³ of sediment at the North Shore boat launch ramp and placing it to provide additional shoreline protection at the entrance of Mud Lake to Lake Koshkonong. We have an agreement with the Twin Island Gun Club, which owns the property adjacent to Mud Lake for construction of this project. 

How Small Hydro Could Rescue America’s Dumb Dams

How Small Hydro Could Rescue America’s Dumb Dams

When early 20^th century engineers designed America’s dams, they only imagined a few key uses like boat navigation, capturing water for crops, or creating a great place to catch bass. Nary a thought was given to how desperately future generations might need all the clean hydropower that dams are capable of producing. In fact, of the 80,000 dams in the country, only three percent currently create electricity.

Lake Koshkonong Lake Level

775.58

And increasing.

At NO TIME have we dropped BELOW the DNR Winter Order minimum of 775.00

Stagecoach Supper Club

A few miles off the eastern side of Lake Koshkonong on the border of Rock and Jefferson counties sits a very unassuming white house with a simple sign – The Stagecoach Inn. For miles along Wisconsin Highway 26, the glowing lights of the neon sign out front and the two windows peering into the dining room are the only things that light up for miles. Like most supper clubs in Wisconsin, the drive to this backroads destination is well worth it.

Jefferson County opening snowmobile trails Saturday

The Jefferson County Public Snowmobile Trails will open at 8 a.m. on

Saturday, Dec. 22.

The Jefferson County Snowmobile Alliance asks that riders use

caution and respect the property owners. Please be aware that

we have an extremely limited frost situation.

Please ride safely. All lakes, ponds and streams are considered

 unsafe at this time. Riders must stay on marked trails.

Please contact the Snowmobile Alliance 24-hour

Hotline at 920-699-SNOW (7669) for current information.

Dredging Update 12-18-12

Here's the status of things for the experimental project:

1.      The bid documents are out – the advertisement to bidders was published last Thursday and will again be published this Thursday in the Fort and Janesville papers.  The advertisement will be published in the Edgerton and Milton papers Wednesday this week.  We have had several bidders contact us already to pick up documents or have sent them electronically.  We are maintaining a bidders list.

2.      As a reminder, the pre-bid meeting is mandatory for all prime bidders and will be on-site at 1 PM January 3 (Thursday).  I will see if we can get inside at the restaurant in case it's really cold.

3.      Bids are due at 10 AM Wednesday, January 9 at the Mars offices in Cottage Grove.  We will open the bids and read them aloud to whoever is here, and provide you a tabulation of the bids late Thursday.

4.      We have noted in the advertisement to bidders that the RKLD board could award this contract as early as January 10.  Have you scheduled a board meeting?

5.      We will contact Great Lakes Archeological and will have them available for the pre-bid and pre-construction meetings.

6.      We will send an email to Pam Biersach at DNR confirming status of the project.

7.      We will contact the Corps in Waukesha about the pre-construction meeting, although we don’t have that scheduled yet.

8.      I looked on the RKLD website for a press release or some announcement on the grant in the project but didn't see anything.  Have you issued something or do you have an interview coming up that we should know about?

9.      We have submitted for a Jefferson County floodplain ordinance approval for the fill within the floodfringe defined area of Lake Koshkonong, you were copied on Friday.  I don't anticipate any problems.  We will keep you posted.

10.  We have contacted the Town of Sumner on the Lamp Road restoration issue.  I will send a draft restoration agreement out to Bill today based on examples we have in our office for his editing and transmittal to you tomorrow and also to the Town.  The Town also has a permit process for general access on town roads which may be somewhat onerous for the contractors to deal with.  We'll find out more about it from the town clerk and give that information to contractors at the pre-bid conference.

11.  I will send the twin island gun club folks a care package with the permits and key dates for the bidding and contracting process.

12.  Tall grass Restoration has given us a hourly cost for providing on-site staff as needed during construction.  We agreed that it made the most sense to talk about restoration of wetland access road damage as and if it actually is needed, which we should know by February.  They will decide in February or March if they want to donate services for the wetland restoration planning, monitoring and maintenance, or whether they will simply bid the project.

Update on Dredge to Town of Sumner

Thanks for speaking with me about this project.  It's clear that we're going to need to move quickly to have the appropriate town approvals and agreements in place, and I apologize for the rush, especially considering the holidays.

I've attached four drawings that generally describe the project.  Based on our conversations, here's a list of the issues that I think we need to address:

Operating hours

As we discussed at the town board meeting, we will specify that the hours of operation will be from 7 AM to 6 PM, seven days a week.

Access roadways

As we discussed just now, Sheet 1 of the attachments shows the construction access being via Burnham Road and North Shore Rd.  We will revise that to show access only along North Shore Rd. from Highway 106 in the Town of Koshkonong.  We need to obtain whatever approval is required from the Town of Sumner for use of this roadway.  As you suggested, we will contact Kim Cheney at the Town of Koshkonong to discuss construction traffic on their portion of North Shore Rd.

Lamp Road restoration agreement

The construction documents state that the preferred route for hauling dredged lakebed sediment to the fill section adjacent to Mud Lake (refer to Sheet 2) is by off-road truck haul on the bed of Lake Koshkonong.  However, we have identified transport along Lamp Road as an alternate haul route.  Based on our discussion of the Town Board meeting, significant truck traffic along Lamp Road is anticipated to create damage to the existing paving.  We need to develop a repair agreement including any conditions or procedures that the Town of Sumner needs for this use.  I understand that you will have Glendan contact me tomorrow morning on this issue.

Project schedule

The project will be out to bid soon.  We anticipate receiving bids on January 9 and the Rock Koshkonong Lake District board could award the contract as early as January 10.  The contract award will include a notice to proceed that will specify the earliest date that the contractor can be on-site.  As we discussed, we would like to take advantage of current low water conditions on Lake Koshkonong and get this work completed before the spring flood (if we have one!), meaning that we would like to allow the contractor to begin work as soon after January 10 as possible.  Again, I regret putting you in a "rush" situation on this, and we will accommodate any meeting schedule that you need to complete approvals that are needed.

Notification of local residents

As I mentioned at the town board meeting, we anticipate sending brief project notice descriptions to residents that are near the construction access at the North Shore launch ramp or along Lamp Road, which will describe the purpose, schedule and approximate layout of the project.  Will provide a copy of this notice to the town hall, and if you have any specific suggestions on who should receive notices, please let us know.

Contact persons

Montgomery Associates is the design engineer for this project, retained by the Rock Koshkonong Lake District.  I'm the principal in charge at Montgomery Associates and can be reached at either our office number or my personal cell phone, shown below.  Siggi Sigmarsson is the project engineer, and can be reached at our office.  Siggi will likely be the primary person on-site during construction.  Debbie Hatfield is in charge of construction documents for this project, and she can also be contacted in our office.

Brian Christianson, chairman of the Rock Koshkonong Lake District board is available for questions and discussions on this project.  His phone number is 608-884-9444.

The Rock Koshkonong Lake District has an agreement with the Twin Island Gun Club for construction of this project.  The Twin Island Gun Club contact is Rick Gerke, at phone number 920-650-2157.

We depreciate knowing the "go to" contact folks for the Town of Sumner as the project moves forward.

Thanks very much for helping us get this project underway.  We want to make sure that the Town's concerns are addressed to your satisfaction, before, during and after construction of this project.

Staging Request to Jefferson County For Dredge Project

We would very much like using the parking area on the former Lamp property for contractor equipment storage and staging for the project.  Particulars of the use will include:

1.      Anticipated construction time frame is January 10 through March 15, 2012

2.      Extent of use area is shown on the drawings.

3.      We anticipate that the primary access will be from North Shore Rd., but we would also like the option of access directly to Lamp Road if needed.

4.      We will only use the portion of the property that is an existing parking area with gravel surface.

5.      Rock Koshkonong Lake district will restore any damage to the parking area after project completion.

6.      The staging area will be clearly signposted and all security needed (such as fencing, locking storage, etc.) will be the responsibility of the contractor.

7.      We will invite a representative of Jefferson County to attend a preconstruction meeting, and would be happy to meet on-site to designate primary and alternate access routes to public roadways from the property.

Rock River Trail - VIDEO (Lake Koshkonong)

More on Low Water on Lake Koshkonong

What goes down must come up

Some folks may be wondering whether Lake Koshkonong water levels could be lower than desirable in the spring and summer of 2013 due to the unusually low water levels that we are experiencing now.  

As we have discussed in several of the annual meetings, Lake Koshkonong is a "wide spot in the Rock River".  

This means that the Lake, as large as it is, does not store a large amount of water compared to the volume of the floods that come down from the entire Rock River watershed upstream.  

If you look at the water level records at the USGS Lake Koshkonong Gage for the past 60 days, you'll see that even minor rainstorms and small increases in the discharge of the river have produced upward "spikes" in the water level record.  

These discharges that we've seen over the last month or two are very small compared to typical spring floods.  

Although an extremely severe drought in the spring of 2013 as possible, we believe it is almost certain that water levels will rise in Lake Koshkonong and the Rock River next spring, as they always do.

Lake Koshkonong Lake Level App AVAILABLE

Go to the App Store and search - USGS gauge Data - then download, search on WI and scroll to Lake Koshkonong Near Newville.

Great Resource!

Low flow in the Rock River and low water levels on Lake Koshkonong

As many have noticed, the water levels in the Rock River and on Lake Koshkonong have been very low since the winter drawdown began in October.  

The reason for this is that the discharge in the Rock River is very low, due to the lingering effects of the drought of 2012.  

With the discharge this low, the slide gates and wicket gates at Indianford dam have the capacity to come close to achieving the drawdown water level that is specified in the DNR operating order for the dam, which is gage height 5.0 on the USGS Lake Koshkonong Gage.  In most years, discharge in the Rock River is high enough so that even with all the Indianford dam gates open all of the time, the Lake Koshkonong water level seldom gets below gage height 6.0.

For example, over the past 30 days, the discharge in the Rock River at Newville has declined from approximately 1000 cubic feet per second to the discharge recorded for today, approximately 550 cubic feet per second.  

The median flow in the river is typically over 1000 cubic feet per second for this entire time period.  With all of the gates open at the dam, Lake Koshkonong water levels have declined from gage height 6.0 to 5.1.  The current lake level is still approximately 0.1 feet above the winter operating order specified elevation.

The current water levels are in conformance with the operating orders for the dam – what’s unusual is that the discharge in the Rock River is so low that the district is able achieve compliance with the order.