WI-DOT Hearing – WI 23 Expansion Project
Wednesday, August 28th – 6pm to 8pm
The Prairie Theatre – UW-Fond du Lac, 400 University Dr., Fond du Lac, WI
COST – The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) has presented a preferred alternative for a major expansion of State Highway 23. The selected alternative is projected to cost over $128,000,000.
• At 19 miles, that is over $6.5 million per mile.
• Real estate acquisition costs amount to $62,500 per acre.
• Every dollar spent on unnecessary highway expansion is a dollar less that the Department of Transportation could use to reimburse townships, villages and counties for road repairs that are more urgently needed than widening State Highway 23.
SAFETY – Everyone wants a safe State Highway 23. Unfortunately, bigger is not always safer.
• The STH 23 crash rate within the project limits is less than the statewide rates. While the STH 23 crash rate is lower, increases are expected as the traffic increases.
• In the study corridor, deer crashes accounted for 57 % of the total number of rural crashes. Widening the highway will make it harder and take longer for deer to cross the highway.
• Redesigning dangerous intersections and adding passing lanes can improve safety without a major expansion and disrupting the rural character of a majority of the highway corridor.
TRAFFIC VOLUME & CONGESTION
• WISDOT claims traffic volume and congestion as a major reason for expanding STH 23 to a four lane divided highway. Previous WISDOT projections significantly overestimated traffic volume.
• Wisconsinites are driving less each year so the project may not be needed in 20 years, if at all.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
• Big roads with excess capacity do not always create local economic growth or opportunity. They do create minimum wage jobs at gas stations, convenience stores, fast food restaurants and big box retailers who locate at major intersections. They are seldom locally owned and the profits from these operations end up somewhere else. Traffic zips along, bypassing local businesses and small town business districts.
• Only 11.2% of all traffic on STH 23 is commercial truck or bus traffic.
FARMS & FARMLAND
• Expanding the highway will require that 16 farms be relocated.
• The expansion will totally eliminate almost 250 acres of productive cropland.
For more information please click below:
WIS DOT and 1000 Friends reconsideration agreement from November 2011.
Hwy 23 complaint issued in June 2011.
Journal Sentinel Editorial regarding Hwy 23.