It's great when you can help shape your community's future. Bret Swenson, senior project manager of Wisconsin-based construction company Payne and Dolan, is doing that as he works with three other general contractors and a multitude of subcontractors on an 80-acre renovation of a 220-acre medical and scientific campus.
"There is a lot of hometown pride in our work here," he said.
The campus, Milwaukee Regional Medical Center (MRMC), is in the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa which is the home to Swenson, as well as MRMC representative Mark Geronime and lead roadway design engineer Andre Ost.
Some 37,000 people visit this campus daily as employees, patients and contractors. Numerous construction projects are happening at the same time on campus requiring vital communication like a human body communicates with various body parts.
Curtis Waltz, Aerialscapes photo
If the medical campus were a human body, Payne and Dolan's work could be akin to the blood vessels. The company, a subsidiary of construction giant Walbec Group, is doing blood vessel-like work of providing essential infrastructure work that enables other projects and life on the campus to function.
Payne and Dolan's work will focus on coordination, utility installations and construction of a multi-modal transportation network of roads, bike paths and sidewalks following a series of building demolition projects.
The work began in 2023 and will continue through 2026. The initial phase of construction was estimated at $50 million, with the possibility of near doubling that amount as future phases are added. Payne and Dolan's work on the campus is about 50 percent complete.
Providing Space for Other Jobs
Payne and Dolan's work has incorporated recycling to a remarkable degree. A crucial element of the work has been to provide space for other contractors to do their jobs.
"In 2023, we razed a 450,000 square foot former mental hospital and recycled 85 percent of the total building and contents," said Swenson. "This year, another building [200,000 square feet] will be razed and the concrete recycled for use onsite."
The construction team had a crusher onsite — a KPI Astec GT440 impactor — that reduced much of the material to breaker run and 1.25-in. gravel. Another sophisticated excavator equipped with a concrete pulverizer attachment sized concrete beams and columns for crushing with another excavator using a magnet to pull out metal for recycling.
The gravel was used for subgrade for the new roads. However, some of the bricks and blocks were not suitable for road construction. The construction team found a novel use for these remains, employing it as fill for the utility trenches.
"This recycling meant the contractor did not need to buy fill materials," said Swenson. "It also meant that the brick and block did not need to be hauled off. It was a huge savings for the project."
Payne and Dolan's work on the west side development of the campus regularly employed recycling techniques:
• Asphalt recycling: 32,000 tons processed and used for road subgrade.
• Concrete recycling: 28,000 tons used for structural fill and road subgrade.
• Building brick and block recycling: 40,000 tons used for utility trench backfill.
• Metal recycling: 1,300 tons.
• Material hauled: 484,000 tons, with 90 percent of the soil kept on the campus. These efforts eliminated nearly 40,000 truck trips, a savings of about 1.5 million truck miles.
Additional recycling will continue as the project continues.
Curtis Waltz, Aerialscapes photo
Another important "green activity" for the project revolved around the trees that were removed for construction. The MRMC plans to replant more than 1,000 trees on the campus. Payne and Dolan has planted more than 500 so far.
Large trees harvested during the expansion have been repurposed for wood furniture and large timber structures. An irrigation system has been installed to maintain the longevity of trees and other plants. These efforts will contribute to the campus' appearance of healing and wellness.
Like rebuilding the streets, realigning utilities required brain power as well as muscle power.
"When we started the project, there were six separate fiber optic cable vendors accessing campus buildings on a single street," said Swenson. "The individual conduits were previously installed in a haphazard manner and clogged up every inch of available right-of-way space. To clean this up, our project is constructing a mainline fiber optic duct route on each street for all telecommunication vendors to occupy with ‘vaults' every few hundred feet that act like bus stops. The vaults allow the providers access outside of the right of way and will make new installations to campus members quicker while keeping the right-of-way clear."
Robust Roadway Rebuild
The Payne and Dolan road construction team's work on 87th Street, on the east side of campus, and on 92nd Street is a microcosm of its efforts at MRMC. This avenue is a crucial road leading through the campus and is the front door to Froedtert Hospital, a major trauma center.
The construction team handled the work carefully, keeping the road open to the center for all but two 8-hour shutdowns for construction. While 92nd Street is being widened and adding a median for safety, the project is adding complete multi-modal streets (Doyne Avenue, 95th Street) on the west side of campus that will spur future development and investment in the campus while providing access to motorists, bicyclists, pedestrians and most importantly patients.
The Payne and Dolan team is using Wisconsin Department of Transportation standards for the road, building a street that is nearly 3 ft. thick roadway section above subgrade constructed with 16 in. of breaker run under 12 in. of base aggregate, capped with 6 in. of asphalt.
Curtis Waltz, Aerialscapes photo
Having sturdy roads is especially vital as the campus supports so many other construction projects including Mortensen Company's work on Froedtert Tower 3, an 8-story building expansion. Another construction team will be building a 3-story crime lab on campus. These efforts will require cranes and other heavy-duty equipment.
Payne and Dolan will be using paving equipment and rollers to achieve compaction on the new roads. During demolition, the team used excavators, bulldozers, front-end loaders, skid steers and various trucks for hauling debris.
The construction team has used GPS technology to help with accuracy during the construction activities. Accuracy and conservation of effort is especially important when working near other construction projects on the campus.
"We are almost bumping elbows with other crews," said Swenson.
The construction team uses GPS grade control during earthwork and grading. A GPS base station provides control for vertical precision for the subgrade and base course placement. The site foreman uses a GPS rover to assist the equipment operators with cut to subgrade vertical adjustments, so the excavated elevations are true to project requirements.
Payne and Dolan continues to work closely with the other three general contractors to make a smooth flowing construction site. The projects include:
• west side development — infrastructure (roads and utilities) — Payne and Dolan;
• parking structure #1 replacement (Froedtert visitor parking) — CG Schmidt;
• forensic science and protective medicine facility (Wisconsin State Crime Lab, the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office and the Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management) — CD Smith; and
• Froedtert courtyard tower 3 (8-story bed tower) — Mortenson.
The construction team also will revamp the storm sewer system on campus by installing 2.2 mi. of storm sewer; 1.3 mi. of water main; and 0.5 mi. of sanitary sewer.
"The communication between these projects has been outstanding from the beginning," said Swenson. "We all work well together while working around each other. The major victory is that we are all on schedule despite the crowded space. We all look out for one another. I couldn't be prouder of how all of these projects are working together toward a collective goal for our clients."
Payne and Dolan's assistant project manager, Max Hakanen, and lead foreman, Ben Feucht, have been instrumental in the team's success. Both are safety-minded and keep the project consistently moving forward despite the challenges faced working in between three other general contractors.
There is currently $850 million in active construction projects on the campus. Payne and Dolan's infrastructure work is making it possible for these projects to proceed. CEG
