Batterman’s Full-Service Contribution to Beloit’s 80-100 Grand Avenue Riverwalk Extension Project

November 2024

Batterman’s participation in this project began in the Fall of 2021 when we started working with the City of Beloit to help identify grants to support funding and assist in the grant writing and application process. The final grant applications were submitted in May 2022. Subsequently, in September 2022, the WDNR awarded the City a Municipal Flood Control Grant and a Stewardship Local Assistance Grant.

In May 2023, Batterman was awarded the project contract for professional surveying, structural, environmental, and civil engineering services, including construction management and grant administration.

For the project’s first phase, we faced the interesting challenge of surveying the site on land and in the water, including a complete bathymetric survey. To gather the comprehensive dataset we needed, we used a mix of conventional survey instruments such as total stations and GNSS receivers (GPS), as well as more advanced methods such as sonar (to capture the bed of the Rock River) and scanners to capture the point cloud and sheet pile walls.

For the design phase, Batterman partnered with Jewell Associates Engineers, Inc. and Brownfield Environmental Engineering Resources to design the project’s structural, environmental, and civil components. The detailed data collected during the survey was utilized to gain a clear understanding of the impacts to the site due to the removal of the building and allowed for an efficient design to partially remove the existing bridge deck around the supporting girders and extend the bridge parapet wall to span the 100-foot gap created by the removal of the existing building then align the proposed riverwalk to maximize the developable land area while minimizing impacts to the Rock River and maintaining a seamless transition into the existing riverwalk. Design input from the City of Beloit, WI, the Public, and Hendricks Commercial Properties was considered and incorporated throughout the project. This resulted in removing a blighted, unimprovable building in a valued downtown location, an extension of the riverwalk, and a design/construction-ready site for future development.

In the project’s final phase, our team will oversee all construction, including building demolition, removal of the structure over the Rock River, and new construction of the Rock River Trail/Downtown Riverwalk extension. We will also provide construction staking services and conduct material testing, reviews, and reporting.

The building’s exterior demolition is now in progress. Construction is scheduled to be completed in June 2025.

You can follow the project’s progress by visiting: rhbatterman.com/80-100_grand/