Home Page: County Y Interchange Updated

 Minutes

 US 18/151 Highway Access Study

 

This was a meeting of the Iowa County Transportation Committee to which members of

the town boards from Ridgway, Dodgeville, Brigham and the Ridgeway Village Board

were invited. The purpose of this meeting was to review the current status of the US

81/151 freeway conversion design concepts for Iowa County.

 

Dan Curran, Curt Peterson, Robert Pilling, Ryan Walmer, Bob Bunker, Bob Zinck, and

John Meyers.

 

Also present:

 

Iowa County Highway Commissioner Craig E. Hardy

 

Larry Barta; WisDOT,

 

Barbara Feeney; Short Elliot Hendrickson Inc

 

Jon Steen; Village of Ridgeway

 

Rich Strutt, Bob Thomas, Kaen Bartz; Town of Ridgeway

 

Doug Reeson, Otis Nelson, Jerry David; Town of Brigham

 

Curt Peterson; Town of Dodgeville

 

Greg Lee; City of Dodgeville Public Works

 

  

Larry Barta walked the group through the maps showing the proposed changes.

 

 The following issues were discussed:

  

. The frontage roads developed to allow removal of driveways and local road

connections to US 181/151 have been developed into a continuous extension of

County ID from Barneveld to Ridgeway.

. Two options were shown for connecting County H to the new interchange on the west

side of Ridgeway. Local officials present preferred Option 1, which moves the route

closest to the existing County H, rather than Option 2 which was further to the east.

 . Removal of the driveway connections to US 18/151 on the Thomas property will

require a long driveway off of County T to the farmstead. The issue was raised as to

whether the Town of Brigham might be willing to take this as a town road as it is a

long driveway for an individual property owner. No resolution on this point was

reached.

. There will be a calculation made of the number of miles of county and town roads

will result from the freeway conversion plan.

. County HHH in Ridgeway will be connected to the new continuous county road and

could be named either County ID or County BB.

. WisDOT will likely be staking the right of way at some point so property owners

know where the new road edges will be.

. Further investigation of the need for connections for the Hodgson property on the

north side of the highway will be done.

. The former truck stop property at County BB and US 18/151 now owned by WisDOT

may be sold someday when the plans for the freeway conversion are complete, but

not for use as a truck stop.

. Portions of the Military Ridge Trail will be relocated. WisDOT will be meeting with

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to discuss these issues.

. WisDOT will likely be willing to relocate WIS 191 onto County Y/YZ at the time

that the interchange at County Y is constructed. Development of a jurisdictional

transfer agreement will be deferred until then, but a note should be added to the

exhibit and the EA.

. Two routes are shown to connect County K to the County ID interchange in

Barneveld. One is on Jones Street and the other is an overland route. WisDOT will

likely officially map both routes. The county and Barneveld boards support the

overland route.

. There was some concern about the severances of farmland that would occur south of

US 18/151 west of County T. The alignment in this area resulted from avoiding the

need to acquire the Staubhaar home. WisDOT will develop a second alignment that

returns to parallel to 18/151 as close the west of the T crossing as is geometrically

possible and work with the property owners to determine whether to map just one or

both.

At the Regular Town Board Meeting on July 7th, 2009 the following motion was made in reference to the rankings of the County Y Interchange options:  

David Gollon made a motion to recommend the following rankings to the Department of Transportation on the County Y Interchange options: Alternative 1B (First), Alternative 1A (Second), Alternative 1C (Third), Alternative 1D (Absolutely Not). The Town of Dodgeville also strongly recommends with all alternatives that County Y and County YZ become US Highway 191 and have the North frontage road be connected to the Town of Ridgeway due to potential liabilities to the Town and emergency service vehicles. Thomas Mueller seconded the motion. Motion carried.

Maps:

www.townofdodgeville.com/uploads/images/file/County Y/Map1AltsAB_Iowa_11x17.pdf 

 www.townofdodgeville.com/uploads/images/file/County Y/Map1AltD_Iowa_draft.pdf

www.townofdodgeville.com/uploads/images/file/County Y/Map1AltC_Iowa_11X17.pdf

Alternative Option Ranking Sheet:

www.townofdodgeville.com/uploads/images/file/County Y/Alternative Descriptions.pdf

Meeting Minutes from the Joint Public Meeting:

www.townofdodgeville.com/uploads/images/file/County Y/03192009 Minutes.doc