Rossman Elementary School in Detroit Lakes, MN was originally constructed in the 1950’s and had not had any major site improvements completed since the late 1960’s. Over the years, bussing, parent drop-off and pick-up, and short-term and staff parking needs changed dramatically. Additionally, there were deteriorated parking areas, inadequate drainage, poor lighting, and accessibility issues that needed to be addressed. The district was struggling to properly and safely accommodate these demands. The Detroit Lakes Public School Board engaged Apex Engineering Group to evaluate these challenges and develop an improvement project that would best resolve these issues within the confined site, located in a developed neighborhood.

Apex was closely involved from project inception through the final phases of construction. One of the largest challenges of the job was identifying a design concept that would address all of the various site issues within the confined site. Apex developed several options that targeted the lack of staff and parent parking, bussing pick-up and drop-off, and student pick-up/drop-off, while reducing some of the adjacent street congestion related to these issues. These concepts were refined and blended together through an iterative evaluation process that included Apex and Rossman Elementary School Administration, until a final concept was accepted by all stakeholders.

Apex was tasked with improving the stormwater collection and treatment process for this project. Enhancement to the site required compliance with current watershed treatment regulations. Stormwater collection and treatment measures were retrofitted with portions of the existing stormwater infrastructure and space. This created an area to construct a treatment basin without further reducing the existing playground areas.

The project successfully bettered the safety of the overall site with new and reconfigured parking lots consisting of designated short term parking and designated staff parking, separate drop-off and pick-up areas for bus and parent traffic, and lessened congestion. Additional improvements included modern stormwater collection and treatment, energy efficient LED lighting, irrigation, ADA compliant sidewalks and playground access, and irrigation.