Fleet Farm — Muskego

Water — where it was and wasn’t — added extra complexity to the construction of a new Fleet Farm in Muskego.

Collaboration and ingenuity helped the project go smoothly despite a few challenges, said Kim McElwee, senior marketing coordinator for raSmith.

The Fleet Farm project includes a 137,000-square-foot retail store with an outdoor yard area and a separate 2,900-square-foot gas station and car wash. The parking lot has 429 stalls and the building has a four-bay truck dock. CR Structures served as the project’s general contractor.

Three separate underground detention systems, totaling more than 2 million gallons of storage and a bioretention basin, provide stormwater management on site. A tributary to the Fox River carrying flow from about 1,500 upstream acres also runs through the site.

raSmith worked with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to resolve several environmental challenges including wetland fills, additional culvert permitting, site modifications and restricted seasonal construction requirements to minimize adverse impacts on fish sprawling in the stream.

“We worked with the city of Muskego to enhance the existing wetlands and remove invasive species as part of the clean-up,” McElwee said.

The city of Muskego did not have enough capacity to supply water to the site so a well was built to provide water. The well, however, could not support the building’s sprinkler system. McElwee said the team designed and installed a separate underground storage system for fire suppression.

The new building sits on a former lake infilled with buried debris and poor soil. raSmith worked closely with a geotechnical engineer to over-excavate and reinforce the foundation.