Bayside Excavating to Improve Water Drainage

Bayside residents may have seen a few heavy-weight trucks and excavating equipment along Brown Deer Road this past week as village crews work to improve water drainage throughout the village.

Pederson said when the village has received heavier rainfalls, water would backup on Brown Deer Road forcing police to shut down the road temporarily.

All last week, an excavator dug out ditches along Brown Deer Road removing sometimes three feet of rotten leaves, sticks and garbage that were clogging up drainage pipes.

"If we had heavy enough rains, the four catch basins under the railroad truss under Brown Deer Road would flood," Pederson said.

Crews are creating new retention areas West of near the 621 pond, and to the East of the fire station as well. They will also remove a large cluster of trees in that same area, but Pederson said theses are Ash trees that were already deteriorated.

"We'll also get rid of buckthorn and other invasive species," he said.

But these changes aren't just aesthetic Pederson said. Fixing up the overgrowth and dredging the ditches is going to do a lot more than improve the physical appearance of a high-traveled area of Bayside.

"A lot of people driving by look at it as an aesthetic enhancement," Pederson said. "There will be an aesthetic enhancement to it, but the functionality of managing the storm water is a bigger component to this."

Pederson said he will meet with railroad officials next week to discuss removing the lead-based paint on the railroad and repaint the trusses with a color that’s “To be determined.”

How is the village paying for this?

Pederson said this project doesn't take anything more than man hours. The village already has the equipment and allocates so many hours per year to work on the storm water management utility.

Pederson said crews will finish up with landscaping in the spring.