Target Field Station Transit Plaza

Challenge

Located in downtown Minneapolis on a highly urban site with poor soil conditions, the challenges for the Target Field Station Transit Plaza project were numerous. The team selected to lead the effort would have to make use of every square inch of the parcel while not disrupting operations of a nearby waste-to-energy facility. 

The site also contained significant contamination, eliminating the ability to infiltrate stormwater onsite to prevent the mobilization of existing contamination plumes in the nearby Mississippi River. This created additional challenges in meeting the stormwater management requirements set forth by the City of Minneapolis and those listed in the request for proposal (RFP) by both Hennepin County (project owner) and the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization (MWMO).

Solution

In collaboration with a number of project partners, the SEH team (engineers and landscape architects) designed the first-of-its-kind, year-round cyclical stormwater and snow-melt runoff system in Minnesota. (Partner firm Michaud Cooley Erickson developed the snow-melt system.)

How the new facility works
Rain water is funneled into storage tanks that pump up to 40,000 gallons of water per event to the next-door Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC) facility where its reused in a variety of ways. The system redirects roughly 1 million gallons of stormwater runoff per year to this waste-to-energy facility, significantly reducing its demand on the City's water supply and generating energy.

Heating, along with nearly 50 miles of underground tubing, melts snow during the winter season. The melted water is then delivered to the facility’s storage tanks. Uncollected water is filtered and discharged safely back into the City’s water system before it ends up in the Mississippi River.

Awards

• 2015 Honor Award for General Design | American Society of Landscape Architects, Minnesota Chapter (ASLA-MN)
• 2015 Honor Award for Regional and Urban Design | American Institute of Architects
• 2015 Public Works Project of the Year - Structures Greater than $75 million | American Public Works Association (APWA)
• 2016 Engineering Excellence Grand Award – American Council of Engineering Companies of Minnesota (ACEC/MN