UPDATED Residents back wider median on Highway 29 and U

Reject 'J-turn intersection' option
By: 
David Wilhelms
Correspondent

TOWN OF HERMAN - If the 40 people attending a meeting hosted by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) at the Town of Herman hall Wednesday night represent the consensus of public opinion, the state Highway 29 and County Road U intersection will be rebuilt with wider medians and a lower slope to the east.

The intersection is about 13.3 miles west of Shawano following Highway 29. WisDOT data from 2009 shows 1,500 vehicles per day on County Road U north of Highway 29 and 380 vehicles per day south of the highway. The traffic count on the east-west state highway was 9,100 per day.

The preferred solution will improve driver’s vision to the east by lowering the slope on both lanes. Wider medians with stop signs will encourage drivers to cross Highway 29 in two stages instead of one, according to the WisDOT presentation.

The WisDOT called the meeting to present four alternatives and start gathering public input as it looks to 2021 as the year of rebuilding the intersection that Tim Hanley, Wis DOT project manager, called a “top crash location.” The most recent fatality was April 2019 with at least three more recorded since 2011.

As currently configured, the intersection has 42 “conflict points” or opportunities for vehicles to collide, according to the WisDOT presentation. The goal is to reduce those “conflict points,” Hanley said. A special concern is “right angle crashes” or accidents caused by vehicles turning and being hit by another vehicle, the WisDOT project manager said. “Right angle crashes” accounted for the three fatalities cited by WisDOT in its initial study, Ryan Jahnke, an engineer working with the WisDOT, said.

Hanley said all of the alternatives as “conceptual” and will be reduced to one proposed solution over the next few months. He credited a Nov. 12 meeting with local officials in providing initial input that resulted in the alternative most preferred by attendees.

Hanley responded to a question about the WisDOT’s understanding of farming operations by saying all alternatives would be tested against “turning movements” of farm implements and semi-trucks as well as other vehicle types. Including travel trailers in the testing was suggested by an attendee.

The project’s final shape will be the result of additional WisDOT study and engineering, Hanley said. There will be a second local officials’ meeting in February 2020 and a second public meeting in March 2020.

Mike Kretschmer, a WisDOT project development supervisor, stressed the $2.5 million price tag currently assigned to the project was only calculated to get the 29-U intersection in the state project queue. The final cost will likely be far different, Kretschmer added.

One option, installation of a “J-Turn Intersection” such as found on state Highway 29 at the junction with County Road VV in Brown County (near Maplewood Meats), was soundly rejected by those in attendance.

That option “won’t work for us as dairy farmers,” Angela Schultz told the DOT representatives. One reason is that farm equipment would have to be pulled up Timm’s Hill, the slope west of the intersection, which would increase, not decrease the chance of collision with traffic on state Highway 29, she added.

The Brown County J-Turn intersection is being replaced with a cloverleaf-style intersection. Hanley said the intersection was being replaced due to economic development, not safety. He added it was his understanding that Brown County and the developer were contributing to the costs of replacement.

The WisDOT did not present an interchange with ramps and an overpass as an alternative, although that kind of intersection has been discussed for years. When challenged on that decision, Hanley acknowledged that, if money were not a concern, then that solution would be viable. He added that the goals of reducing or eliminating severe crashes and making the intersection more usable would be met with the lower-cost alternatives shown at the meeting.

WisDOT “wanted to look at something more intermediate and not go for the ‘max.’ That would not be reasonable,” Hanley said.

The public has until January 8, 2020, to provide comments by regular mail, email, phone or personal contact to:

Timothy Hanley

WisDOT Project Manager

Wisconsin Department of Transportation

1681 Second Avenue South

Wisconsin Rapids, WI 54495

715-421-8050

timothy.hanley@dot.wi.gov