April 7, 2012 Progress Report on Bushaway Road Preservation and Re-Design

The Bushaway Task Force will give a workshop for the City Council in the near future. Tentatively it is scheduled for Tuesday, April 16 at 6pm. You will receive a notice within the coming week confirming a date. All residents are invited to attend. This will be an opportunity for the Task Force to describe their work over the past five months. A new major report has been prepared by the Task Force and informal conversations are taking place with County Engineers. A 2-page draft summary of their report appears as an appendix to this report.

Perhaps the biggest accomplishment over the winter has been the agreement by BNSF to lower the railroad tracks under Bushaway Road so that the bridge can be lowered substantially. This will greatly reduce environmental impact because the approaches to the railroad bridge and the adjacent intersection can now be at a substantially lower grade. This will mean fewer retaining walls and less of a total footprint for the intersection.

Many of you know that the County purchased the property at 1515 McGinty, the NE corner of the Bushaway/McGinty/Eastman intersection, next to the bridge. The County plans to use this land to move the McGinty approach to the intersection toward the North so that McGinty is aligned with Eastman Lane.

Historical Trapper’s Cabin at 324 Bushaway Road may be moved and preserved as a historical edifice by the City of Wayzata. The chief remaining obstacle is financing the cost of moving and restoration. Anyone with interest in helping with this should contact Irene Stemmer.

Bushaway Tree Study & Valuation: Meanwhile the Bushaway Preservation Fund has commissioned arborist Manuel Jordan to build a Bushaway tree database with GIS coordinates and attributes (species, diameter, and condition) of each tree in the Bushaway corridor. This will enable us to accurately assess to nature of threat posed by alternative reconstruction designs by the county. In addition, the arborist has estimated the dollar value of each tree. This database and report is nearly complete. When completed, it will include an online map where the viewer can click on each tree near their property and view the attributes of each tree. Efforts are being made to harmonize the County’s tree inventory with our own so that we can understand the basis of any and all discrepancies, whenever they occur. The Bushaway website has a link to a preliminary set of maps showing all of the trees potentially at risk from the design proposed by the County last October.

Property Surveying needed: If you have not recently obtained a survey, clearly identifying the edge of your property that lies next to Bushaway Rd, you should do so soon. Kristen Eide-Tellefson is working with the owners along northwest Bushaway so that they can get Sathre Bergquist for them as a group. A survey is important because some owners on Bushaway have found that the County has miss-calculated the property lines by as much as 12 to 18 inches.

Bushaway is now a Local Scenic Byway. Late last year the Metropolitan Council approved Wayzata’s proposed amendment to their Comprehensive Plan to include Bushaway Road as well as Eastman Lance and Lake Street as locally designated Scenic Byways. This is important because it demonstrates to the world that Bushaway is a special street scenically and that the City has officially recognized it as such. The significance of this designation will become more apparent if and when a Lake Minnetonka Scenic Byway project gets underway. It ensures that Bushaway will become a major part of that byway system. The neighborhood has offered to work with the Mayor and the City government to update the Historic Bushaway signs at each end of Bushaway.

The first week in April (2012), when the leaves were just beginning to appear, was an ideal time to take pictures of Bushaway’s grand trees. Ron Anderson took dozens of photographs to document the size, location, canopy potential of these trees along each side of Bushaway Road. Some of these photos can be viewed on the Bushaway site.

Canopy between 167 and 218 Bushaway - 30 trees at risk	324 Bushaway (NE of BNSF bridge) - 21 trees at risk

Appendix: Preliminary Draft Response from Bushaway Task Force regarding Hennepin County Layout # 5 Dated 9/12/2011 --- This summary drafted April 6, 2012

Since the County provided its September 12, 2011 revision of its preliminary layout for Bushaway Rd, the Bushaway Task Force has met for hundreds of hours of analysis in re-evaluating its positions set forth in their October 2010 report. The complexity of the issues is such that the task force could easily spend another year reviewing and exploring the issues. However, in the interest of expediting the process, the task force has developed a consensus of the minimum layout required for approval of the Bushaway reconstruction plan.

The task force’s primary goal has been to protect the character of the Bushaway Road corridor, specifically, the protection of historic, cultural and natural resources, including wetlands, tree canopy and habitat. In order to minimize tree loss, the construction limits should be kept to a minimum. The suggested design alternatives, listed below, would further reduce the project’s impact and provide a roadway more compatible with the adjacent environment.

Desired changes to the latest redesign proposal:

1. 1. A six-foot (6’) trail rather than an eight-foot (8’) trail throughout the Bushaway Rd corridor.
2. 2. A variable sloped boulevard, rather than the proposed six-foot, flat boulevard throughout.
3. 3. Use of the County’s pinchpoint cross section for the entire length of the Wayzata project, as modified in Figure 3, page 6, of the attached task force analysis document.
4. 4. Change the curb and gutter style on non-trail side of the road, throughout, to a surmountable curb style.
5. 5. Modification to the raised medians, as follows:
   1. a. Elimination of the raised median at LaSalle Street
   2. b. Removal of raised median at Locust Hills OR expansion of medians to allow for additional landscaping
   3. c Consider addition of gateway element in raised median near Frontage Road
   4. d. Reduction of the striped approaches to median areas.
6. 6. Removal of the southbound right turn lane at the McGinty/Eastman intersection.

Additional Recommendations

• The County, working with a City of Wayzata committee, should design a preliminary landscape plan for all of the graded areas. The plan would include the type of vegetation and the size and species of trees in specific locations. The plan should also contemplate how trees lost to root damage are replaced in the future.
• The County, working with a City of Wayzata committee, should consider design alternatives for the new bridge over the railroad.
• Final plans should designate appropriate design, location and timing of replacement for all private fences impacted by the project.
• The County should work with the City to determine an acceptable fence/guardrail design along the causeway.
• The County should continue to work with the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District (MCWD) to evaluate and utilize low–impact, innovative, environmentally-sensitive storm water management options for the Bushaway corridor.
• The County should consider relocating the trail to the west side of Bushaway Road, north of Eastman Lane.
• The County should consider implementation of the possible design alternatives suggested by SRF Consulting Group, Inc. The County should minimize excavation needed for installation of retaining walls using varied techniques including, but not limited to, the use of sheet piling.  The County should consider the use of natural stone into the design of any necessary retaining walls.  The County should provide each property owner on Bushaway Road with the following items and allow for a review period of 60 days:
  • The most current horizontal alignment and layout design for Bushaway Road, specifying design details of all proposed walls, driveway elevations, tree impacts and construction easements.
  • The most current center line profile, illustrating the proposed vertical alignment for the roadway
  • The most current design cross-sections, which illustrate how the horizontal and vertical alignments transition to the existing conditions on either side of the proposed roadway
  • Staking of the curb, trail edges, and construction limits marked at regular intervals (at least every 100 feet) and at property corners.
• The County should prepare an Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW).
• The County should develop a tree protection plan to be reviewed as a condition of footprint approval. The landscape plan and tree protection plan will be refined in final design.
• The County should continue to work to complete an accurate tree inventory so an accurate tree impact plan can be evaluated.

The task force also asks that the County determine the feasibility of establishing an escrow account from which homeowners that lose trees due to root damage, during an agreed upon timeframe after the completion of construction, can draw compensation for the value of the trees lost. The amount of the fund would be determined by tree valuation experts.

The task force would also like to strengthen the language from the 2008 resolution regarding the moratorium on tree removal to include notification to the City as to the nature and duration of any necessary work, prior to any work being performed.

This draft is subject to further modifications prior to being submitted to the Wayzata City Council.




See many full size Bushaway documents here: REA Files

620 Bushaway Road was spotlighted in a Star Tribune Article. See pictures and article here. Hennepin County has approved a contract with URS for Bushaway Road.

620 Bushaway Road, the Mushroom Cottage

Fund Raising: Donations are welcomed at any time. Bushaway Road, enjoyed by many, welcomes you in our efforts to create a context-sensitive, environmentally and fiscally responsible historic byway. Funds are for environmental and engineering experts to enable us to work with the City of Wayzata to achieve a win-win solution for everyone. If the road is erased, this important 152 year history of the region and State would be lost forever.