The City of Laramie (City) identified this project as one of its Special Purpose Tax (SPT) projects to address drainage concerns; provide curb, gutter and sidewalk; and reconstruct Adams Street to satisfy City design standards and traffic calming measures. Trihydro’s scope of services included supplemental topographic and planimetric surveys for mapping preparation and design to reconstruct approximately 0.70 miles of urban street. Design elements included surveys, hydrologic and hydraulic design, widening of the roadway section, and designing a pedestrian path.
Shortly after the project was underway, it became apparent that additional professional services were required. First, the sanitary sewer collector line in Adams Street had been identified in a previous study to have adverse slopes, which affected the capacity of the line. Second, although Adams Street had been maintained by the City for years, it was actually a county road and the right-of-way was not well-established. Lastly, Adams Street was a primary route used by Wyoming Technical Institute students, residents, and Laramie River Business Park business employees, which resulted in high traffic volumes often at high speeds during peak hours.
Trihydro provided the additional professional services with its in-house survey and infrastructure teams. Trihydro provided design, permitting, construction administration, monitoring, and reporting for the removal and replacement of 4,500 linear feet of 15-inch sanitary sewer line. The project included working at depths of 10 to 15 feet below grade, bypass pumping, and dewatering significant groundwater. This project was prepared as a separate bid package and was constructed a year ahead of the Adams Street reconstruction.
Trihydro’s professional licensed surveyors prepared a right-of-way retracement of the original county right-of-way for Adam’s Street within the project corridor, which required surveying, courthouse research, and review of county archives. After the right-of-way was retraced, a plat and legal description for recordation at the Albany County Courthouse was provided and filed. This allowed Albany County to properly quit claim the right-of-way to the City for ongoing maintenance purposes.
Trihydro’s engineers performed a traffic calming study to address the peak hour traffic volumes and high speeds on Adams Street, which required meetings with the City, Wyoming Department of Transportation, and local stakeholders. Several alternatives were evaluated with associated construction cost estimates and presented to the City Council for direction. The end result included designing landscaped medians to calm traffic and add aesthetic appeal.
Trihydro provided construction administration, monitoring, and reporting to complete the Adams Street reconstruction on time and within budget. The project not only addressed the drainage and traffic concerns, but also created a gateway to West Laramie, which has prompted additional landscape improvements at the intersection of Adams Street and Snowy Range Road. The pedestrian path provides further connectivity to West Laramie for non-vehicular traffic.