All lanes should be clear for fair, DOT says

Railroad crossing reopened Thursday after 3-week closure
By: 
Tim Ryan
Reporter

All lanes of traffic on East Green Bay Street between Main Street and Airport Road should be open during the upcoming Shawano County Fair, according to the contractor in charge of the state Highway 22 reconstruction project for the Department of Transportation.

In his weekly progress report on the project, Kevin Lohff of JT Engineering, Inc. said all lanes were anticipated to be open from 6 a.m. Wednesday through 6 a.m. on Sept. 3.

The county fair starts Wednesday and runs through Sept. 2.

Lohff also announced late Thursday afternoon that the Green Bay Street railroad crossing, which closed down all lanes of traffic between Hamlin and Ellis streets, was officially reopened.

“We have had a very good three weeks of work, which is allowing us to open a day early,” he said.

Lohff said there could still be right-lane closures in that area early next week to complete small work operations such as signing and landscaping.

Shawano Public Works Director Scott Kroening said he confirmed with Lohff that all lanes of traffic would be open during the fair, though it might not necessarily all be paved.

“The two center lanes will be paved,” he said. “The two outside lanes may or may not be paved. If they mill it, they’re going to pave it, but they might not mill it.”

The lane closures will commence again after the fair as needed to complete the road work, Lohff said.

The entire project is expected to be done by late October or early November.

Some businesses along East Green Bay Street said the road construction has been an inconvenience for customers and delivery vehicles but hasn’t drastically affected business.

“It’s a little bit slower around here but most people, if they need their cleaning done, they have to get in here,” said Tanya Martin, manager at Martin’s Cleaners. “We hear plenty of complaints about it, but there’s nothing we can really do about it. Most people can figure out their way in and out.”

Greg Seymour, general manager at American Marine and Motorsports, said work crews have been moving traffic along fairly well and customers have been handling it pretty well.

“At certain times it slows things down, but generally speaking I don’t think we’ve had too much trouble,” he said.

Meanwhile, at Qualheim’s True Value, Store Manager Gail Lemmer said the road work has had no impact at all.

“I figured it would kind of get us, but we have not seen that,” she said. “In fact, (Wednesday) sales were up.”

Shawano Country Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Nancy Smith said she hasn’t heard any chatter about any problems businesses might be experiencing because of the road work.

Kroening said he hasn’t heard any complaints personally, but some impact was evident just by driving through the area.

“You can tell some of those businesses are affected just because there’s no cars sitting in there,” he said. “I guess they’re putting up with it and hopefully they’re seeing the silver lining of the new pavement out in front of their place.”

According to Lohff’s weekly update, work completed since the last update includes completion of new curb ramps on Green Bay Street, installation of new track and new signals at the railroad crossing and continued asphalt paving operations.

The anticipated work schedule for the week of Aug. 26 includes:

• Continue work on the new box culvert at Murray Creek.

• Continue milling and paving operations on Green Bay Street between Airport Road and Main Street.

• Restoration and pavement marking operations in areas that are paved.

For information, go to https://projects.511wi.gov/wis22resurf.