DOT wants input on plan to fix Hwy. 51 intersection

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (DOT) will hold a public involvement meeting later this month to share proposed alternatives for a proposed improvement project on U.S. Highway 51 at the County K/Swamp Lake Road intersection in Oneida County. The public is encouraged to attend the meeting to listen to the discussion, ask questions of project staff and provide input, agency officials said in a press release issued Tuesday, Jan. 7.

The meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 22 at the Northwoods Community Elementary School, 9086 County K, Harshaw.

A short presentation is planned for 5 p.m.; the remainder of the meeting will follow an open-house format.

According to the release, the agency’s goal is to “reduce the number and severity of crashes at the intersection.”

Indeed, as The Lakeland Times reported in October, the County K/Swamp Lake Road intersection has a history of serious accidents. 

In the month of July 2024, five different accidents that involved cars turning on or off Hwy. 51 at Hwy. K or Swamp Lake Road (directly across Hwy. 51 from Hwy. K) were reported to the DOT, the Times reported. Three of those accidents occurred during the Fourth of July holiday weekend. 

In addition, two months later several people were injured in a three-vehicle crash at the intersection of Hwy. 51 and K, with five people taken to area hospitals, one by medical helicopter.

In the October story, DOT civil engineer Rich Handrick noted that a plan to improve the Highway K/Swamp Lake Road intersection was in the pipeline. 

“They identified that that’s a location where we think there’s probably something we can do geometrically to the highway to make a highway improvement to fix the crash problem,” Handrick said, referring to the DOT.

According to the release, the agency is considering three options for the intersection:

• Constructing north- and southbound left-turn lanes and a northbound right-turn lane.

• Constructing north- and southbound left-turn lanes; a northbound offset right-turn lane; and a raised median on the County K approach.

• Constructing a multilane roundabout with two-lane approaches on north- and southbound US 51 and single-lane approaches on County K and Swamp Lake Road.

“When we start a project like this, our job is to look at all the different alternatives that might be available,” Handrick noted. “In an intersection we have to look at a roundabout and that is something we take all those different options through the process and the public involvement is a big part of that process.”

Construction is not expected to begin until 2027.

Those unable to attend the meeting are asked to visit the project’s design website for more information. 

Comments on the proposed project will be accepted through Feb. 19, 2025, by:

Email: [email protected]

Mail: Wisconsin Department of Transportation

510 Hanson Lake Road

Rhinelander, WI 54501.