May 31, 2021 at 9:28 p.m.
Pine Lake resident convinces DOT to add paved deceleration taper off 17 North
Additional study of intersection planned
Pine Lake resident convinces DOT to add paved deceleration taper off 17 North
Karl Driebel, who lives on East Balsam Lane, just north of where the four-lane bypass narrows to two lanes and the speed limit increases, has been bending every ear he can find to get a paved shoulder deceleration lane added to the grind and overlay project underway between Rhinelander and Eagle River.
"Actually from Pollyanna Road, which is right where the (speed limit) sign goes up to 55, to East Balsam Lane, is my concern," Driebel said.
Up until he received a courtesy copy of a May 26 letter from WisDOT North Central Region Director Kenneth L. Wickham to Pine Lake town chairman Jim Flory in Friday's mail, he thought the best he was going to get was a traffic study on East Balsam Lane this summer.
That changed with Wickham's letter, but more about that a little later.
Driebel knows a thing or two about highway projects, having worked for 30 years in highway construction in the southern part of the state. Back in the day, he said, highway projects were not etched in stone from an early point like they are now.
While it proved difficult to get the attention of some elected officials, Driebel said he received strong support from his neighbors in the form of a petition which he submitted to WisDOT.
"I have a petition from everyone on East Balsam Lane, there's probably 30 names," Driebel said. "And each person I talked to said that they have had very bad experiences over the years there, in fact, almost getting killed by traffic behind them that couldn't slow down and there is a double no-passing line the other way."
Notification
Driebel's efforts were hampered by a late start. He did not find out about the work until early April, although local municipalities were notified in August 2018, according to Tegan Griffith, North Central Region communications manager with WisDOT.
In an email, Griffith recounted the history of the project.
"The project was initiated and preliminary investigations began in August 2017. Project scoping was finalized and design efforts began in January 2018. Coordination with local officials (mailings to the Townships, Counties, and State Patrol) occurred in July of 2018," Griffith wrote. "Public involvement (mailings to over 330 project adjacent properties) occurred in August 2018. The project received a signed environmental document in September 2018 with final plans and contract documents submitted in February of 2020."
The preliminary work on the project started last summer, but it wasn't until preparation work started in April that Driebel became aware of the project, he said.
Griffith said that Driebel spoke first with a member of the department staff in the field April 6.
Contacting the county
Oneida County Highway Commissioner Alex Hegeman reported that Driebel contacted him in April with concerns that motorists making right-hand turns onto East Balsam are being pressured by people wanting to accelerate to 55 mph.
"Yes, he came in and talked to me about the issue," Hegeman said. "I actually talked to someone at the DOT that afternoon, and at the time, the safety engineer said there was no safety issues."
Hegeman said there is a safety review done prior to most projects commencing and there were no safety flags that would trigger the construction of a turn lane at the intersection.
"So at that point, I kind of left it there. I received a letter and some signatures from some residents out on East Balsam Lane discussing how they were in favor of a turn lane or a paved shoulder out there and I forwarded that on to the DOT," Hegeman said.
He also shared his opinion that adding a paved turn lane from Pollyanna Road to East Balsam Lane this late into a state project was unlikely.
"These plans are usually done quite a bit ahead of time," Hegeman said. "There is usually some sort of public involvement meeting. I'm not sure what that process was (on this project), I've only been on the job just a little over a month now, so I'm still trying to get all the processes down."
Pine Lake weighs in
Flory mentioned Driebel's concerns during the board's April 21 meeting under the topic of communications.
"Karl came and told the board the whole story, that he has contacted us, he's contacted DOT, he's contacted the county, he's gone to (state representative Rob) Swearingen, he's hit everybody," Flory said. "We decided (at a May 11 special board meeting) we would write a letter to support the residents of East Balsam to the DOT that we should make that intersection safer."
When asked if the residents living alongside roads like Balsam were notified in advance, Flory said WisDOT notified the towns and the county the work was going to happen.
"I don't even think the residents knew," Flory said.
"No, they didn't notify the residents, but they did notify us, saying this is what is going to be happening from Rhinelander all the way to Eagle River," town supervisor Inge Van Kampen concurred. "Then, all of a sudden, they were already working at it."
Culvert replacement began last fall and resumed in April, Flory added.
Seeking elected help
The River News reached out to State Representative Rob Swearingen and State Senator Mary Felzkowski's offices for comment on Driebel's efforts to contact them.
Christopher Seitz from Felzkowski's staff sent the following reply.
"Thank you for reaching out to our office. We would prefer to maintain the privacy of our constituents as we try to assist them with cases such as this. If you have any questions, I would recommend reaching out to Karl Driebel."
Christiaan Parnell, a legislative assistant in Swearingen's office, offered this response.
"Yes, we heard indirectly about this issue regarding Karl Driebel from a Town of Pine Lake official on 5/17. His issue was regarding installing a right turn lane on E and S Balsam Lake Lane. We've been in contact with the Department of Transportation and Senator Felzkowski's office regarding this issue. Sen. Felzkowski's office also reached out to Mr. Driebel directly and explained to him what we heard from DOT regarding this issue."
WisDOT's side
According to Tony Kemnitz, Wisconsin Department of Transportation traffic safety engineer, in addition to Driebel's request coming very late in the planning process, there was no crash data that would have alerted planners that the intersection with Balsam is dangerous.
"So when he (Driebel) brought it up, it was new to me as a safety engineer because never in any of our annual data scans has that intersection come up as a crash spot, safety spot because there is not a significant crash history. We take all of the intersections and compare them statewide to other intersections, and if they exceed that, then we look at spending some extra money there," Kemnitz said. "But when we did this project, there wasn't a crash history to support anything being done other than putting back what was there."
While the work will be disruptive for traffic between Rhinelander and Eagle River, he called the project "basically a high level maintenance job."
In addition to replacing the culverts, a thin layer of asphalt will be ground off the top of the road surface and replaced with a new one in a process that is called a grind and overlay.
"It's basically a high level maintenance project so we can maintain the integrity of the road that we have there so it doesn't fall apart and needs a total replacement, because that would be significantly more costly. So we're trying to catch these roads at a point in time before they really start to fall apart," Kemnitz said. "If we can put a new layer of asphalt on that road, if we can keep the water from getting into the sub-base, we can maintain that road core longer."
A similar project was done on 47 from McNaughton to Rhinelander, he added.
"Couple that with this just being an improvement project, it's just dress up the top layer, replace the culverts, we're really not, at this juncture, looking at a major type improvement," Kemnitz said. "And there not being a major crash history that would support anything outside of the norm on a project like that, that's why we're looking at putting back what was there."
"That's just us managing our money, basing our decisions on the data we have. We make data-driven decisions as engineers," Kemnitz added.
Data-driven decisions
Part of the data the WisDOT engineers look at when determining if a section of highway needs improvement is traffic counts.
"I think you're looking at an average of about 81,000 cars a day on that segment of 17 at that location there," Kemnitz said. "On a side road like that, there could be anywhere from 50 to a couple hundred cars a day. We do not have a traffic count on Balsam Lane, that's one of the things I want to do, go and collect that kind of data and see how that plays into any kind of change that we'd be able to make in the future.
Last minute reconsideration
At approximately 10:15 a.m. Friday, Driebel walked into the River News office with his copy of Wickham's letter to Flory.
The letter said that crash data at the intersection between 2010 and 2019 showed one accident but no documented rear-end crashes like Driebel says are nearly avoided all the time there.
"As such, the intersection is performing within safety norms based upon its documented crash history and did not justify improvement with this project," Wickham wrote.
In the very next sentence, however, Wickham explained the DOT's new plan.
"While the current project is not installing a dedicated turn lane, it will provide a standard paved shoulder width of eight feet at the curb line of East Balsam Lane within a 75-foot paved deceleration taper to accommodate a northbound vehicle turning right onto East Balsam Lane," Wickham said. "This is a typical road configuration for minor roadways intersecting a state highway."
Wickham also wrote that an "engineering investigation of traffic flow on WIS 17 between Oneida County W and Birchwood Drive" will be done in the next several weeks. Speed data will also be gathered which might result in the 45 mph speed limit transition pushed north on 17 to include East Balsam Lane.
Jamie Taylor may be reached via email at [email protected].
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