Newport Park is situated off County Highway A, on the northeast side of Lake Delton, at the confluence of the Wisconsin River and Dell Creek. Bundling several state and federal grant programs (totaling $1.4 million) reduced project costs by 65%.

Phased approach leads to seamless implementation.

In order to complete this project, it was strategically planned for over several years. There were multiple key players involved to help develop this parcel of land. The first phase was to purchase the property jointly by the Village with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR). MSA assisted in getting a Stewardship Grant to secure the purchase of property for the future development.

The second phase of the project involved the layout and planning of the property to accommodate all the requirements and needs for the project, which were: a motorized ADA accessible boat launch; developing a park area to capture the views of the river and natural protected scenery; and preserving the centrally-located effigy mound. The other part to consider in the layout of the site was the topography and being able to provide ADA access.

With all of the different interests involved and the natural topography of the site, several iterations and meetings/reviews by the key players were needed to come to a final layout and meet the requirements of the grants. This assisted in getting the general public involved and on board with the project, including a local resort owner with his own private boat launch area.

In-house funding and permitting expertise streamlines construction efforts.

Permits for this project and the multiple WDNR plan reviews due to the grants involved took a large portion of the planning, design and time for this project. Due to the sensitivity of this park area, several reviews and requirements were placed on the design. MSA worked with the WDNR closely by holding meetings at the project site to review the design requirements by physically laying out the design in the field for everyone to see. In addition, to these efforts, MSA performed several internal QA/QC reviews on the project to ensure all aspects were accounted for and laid out/designed correctly with this particular difficult site. With these efforts being performed upfront, it helped streamline the construction efforts incredibly because all the design particulars were agreed upon prior to bidding and did not hold up the construction process with change orders.