Daylighting Assessment for Moses Creek
Assessing the Feasibility of Reconnecting Stevens Point, Wisconsin to the River
Project Summary
Community: Stevens Point, Wisconsin
Technical Assistance: Reuse Assessment
Current Use: State Highway Corridor
Future Use: Mixed-Use Waterfront Development
The city of Stevens Point, Wisconsin, is in the planning
stage of downtown redevelopment and is considering the
opportunity to revitalize overlapping brownfield areas. The
former Highway 10 corridor, which is overbuilt and
separates downtown from the Wisconsin River, could be
redesigned as a walkable, bikeable entry point to both
downtown and the river. Moses Creek, a former slough
that was diverted to a buried stormwater pipe in the 1980s,
bisects a series of catalyst brownfield sites along the
highway and could become a key asset to the project.
Master-planning efforts have renewed public interest in
connecting open spaces along the waterfront and
honoring the historic "point" of Stevens Point, where
Moses Creek and the Wisconsin River formerly met.
Reestablishing Moses Creek as a natural open channel,
commonly referred to as "daylighting," has the potential to
enhance the aesthetic appeal of nearby trails, provide
additional recreational opportunities to residents, and
improve connectivity to downtown.
The Community's Challenge
Although restoring a stream to its natural state can provide
additional benefits to the environment and the local
community, the city recognizes that daylighting Moses
Creek would require addressing challenges related to
existing contamination and current institutional controls.
Other challenges include understanding and maintaining
adequate channel flow, which could increase complexity in
design and create higher construction and maintenance
costs.
EPA's Land Revitalization Technical Assistance
In 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Land
Revitalization Program provided contractor assistance to
the city to conduct the Moses Creek Daylighting Feasibility
Assessment. The assessment provides critical information
to help evaluate the range of financial and practical issues
that will impact the possible daylighting project. The
assessment discusses the potential benefits of daylighting
Moses Creek, and evaluates the environmental, technical,
and regulatory challenges associated with the process. It
also presents a conceptual plan and associated order-of-
magnitude cost estimate for the most feasible daylighting
option.
Ultimately, the presence of residual environmental
contamination and the lack of adequate natural flow may
present significant challenges to the city's daylighting
alternatives. While additional evaluation is needed to
officially determine if daylighting Moses Creek is
reasonable, the Feasibility Assessment provides the
framework for informed decision-making by the
community.
Conceptual plan of the daylighted Moses Creek with restoration to
the ecosystem along its banks
For more information, contact Brian Kennedy, EPA Region
5 Brown fields Program, at kennedv.brian@epa.gov.
The Squake
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s>EPA
United States	Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization
Environmental Protection
Agency	560-F-20-009

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