Foes of Highway Expansion Are Driven

Herb Reynolds has lived along Lindsay Road in what is now the City of Pewaukee for 38 years and he’s seen a lot change.

"This used to all be farmland out here, everywhere you looked," Reynolds recalled recently.

Reynolds saw the construction of county Highway J 20 years ago bring increased traffic and development to what had been a rural setting.

Now when he looks out from his home, he can see road construction crews widening what used to be Highway J, turning it into a four- lane roadway now known as state Highway 164.

He says he’s certain the highway will bring even more traffic, more development and more car crashes.

"I’ve had it up to here," Reynolds said, positioning his right hand in line with his forehead.

Reynolds has joined the steering committee for a group that continues to fight the Highway 164 project in federal court, even as bulldozers and earthmovers carve up the right of way for what is called Phase Two of the work.

"My biggest concern is that it won’t be safe the way it is being designed," said Reynolds, who has been trying to sell his house. "Another concern is what they have done to the environment around here.

"To me, the people who planned this road are cold-blooded. They don’t care about the people who live out here.

"Their attitude is, We’re going to put this highway in whether you like it or not.’ "

Reynolds’ organization, the Highway J Citizens Group, and the Waukesha County Environmental Action League are fighting an uphill battle in federal court in an effort to halt the project and send the planners back to the drawing board.

The suit names the state and U.S. Transportation Departments, the Federal Highway Administration and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The groups’ main positions: alternatives to widening the highway weren’t seriously considered; environmental impact statements were poorly prepared, violating state and federal guidelines; sensitive environmental habitats including wetlands will be lost to the project; and public comment was not properly considered.

Brian Bliesner, Highway 164 project manager for the state Department of Transportation, said proper planning, including a study of traffic patterns in the area, preceded the project.

"The main reason for that study was to assess the existing traffic in the southern part of the corridor and to have a plan in place for the growing traffic in the northern part of the corridor," Bliesner said. "In the five years since we started that study, Waukesha and Washington counties have continued to grow dramatically.

"We feel vindicated that it was appropriate to look at this traffic issue at the time we did."

"The widening of Highway 164 was supported by most of the local units of government in the corridor," he said. "There was broad support for this project."

18 miles to be widened

Work on the project began in February 2004.

It calls for widening about 18 miles of the road between Interstate 94 and Howard Lane, north of Good Hope Road in Lisbon, from two lanes to four lanes at a cost of about $67 million.

The project will convert about 100 acres of land to highway use, including about 15 acres of wetland and 39 acres of farmland. The project will displace 37 families whose homes will be taken for the expansion.

The construction is set to take place in three phases. The first, from Rockwood Drive to Swan Road in the City of Pewaukee, was finished late last year.

The second phase, which began in spring, is from Swan Road north to just south of Highway VV in Lisbon. The third phase of the Highway 164 project in Waukesha County is scheduled for 2006. The Highway VV and Highway 164 intersection will be reconstructed along with Highway 164 north to Howard Lane.

If traffic continues to grow, the project could someday be extended into Washington County, according to transportation officials.

The federal government will pay for 80% of the project; the remaining 20% will be paid by the state and county.

The lawsuit aimed at halting the project was filed in federal court in February.

In April, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman denied the groups’ request for an injunction that would have halted the project.

Adelman concluded that the lawsuit rehashed issues raised in an unsuccessful 2002 lawsuit over a related project, the construction of a bridge along Highway 164 south of Slinger that opened in 2003. The Highway J Citizens Group filed that suit.

After the groups announced their intention to appeal Adelman’s ruling, they requested an injunction halting reconstruction work on the highway pending the outcome of that legal step. Adelman denied that request.

Dennis Grzezinski, an attorney handling the case for the groups, said he believes they have a good chance of prevailing in their appeal to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago because the current lawsuit is about broader issues than the 2002 lawsuit over the bridge.

"We’re asking the 7th Circuit to allow the plaintiffs to have their case now heard about the highway project as a whole," Grzezinski said.

Grzezinski said the groups’ strongest arguments concern alleged violations of the National Environmental Policy Act and an improperly performed environmental impact statement.

"Construction and operation of the expanded highway system will have major significant environmental effects that were not addressed by the original environmental impact statement," Grzezinski said in the original suit.Attorneys of the agencies being sued said "the traveling public" will be harmed if the project is halted.

"It is not in the public interest to delay a highway project that will prevent accidents and the suffering associated with injuries and traffic fatalities that in the past have plagued the traveling public using County J/Highway 164," they contended.

Country connection

Nell Thornton, who lives in the Fairfield Place condominiums along Highway 164 in the Village of Pewaukee, said the renovated road will change the character of her neighborhood.

"When I moved out here, I felt like I was moving into the country," said Thornton, who was unaware of the project when she bought her condo last fall. "This is going to bring a lot more traffic."

Chuck Petrie, who has lived in Fairfield Place with his wife since 2002, agreed.

"We moved here to be away from the sound of traffic," said Petrie, who is on the steering committee with Reynolds. "I never thought about asking whether a new road would be going in."

Petrie said his biggest objection to the project is its environmental impact.

"This may not sound politically correct, but God provided us with a beautiful world to live in," Petrie said. "Somewhere along the line, we’ve got to think about what we are leaving behind for our children.

"I don’t want a bigger road with faster traffic to be my legacy."

Jeff Gonyo, a steering committee member who lives near Slinger in Washington County, said that 15,000 people have signed a petition opposing the project.

A wide variety of groups also have denounced it, including the Sierra Club, Ducks Unlimited, The Wilderness Society, the Wisconsin Farmers Union, Defenders of the Wildlife, Citizens for Responsible Government, the Lake Michigan Federation, Scenic America and the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters, Gonyo said.

"The project would be devastating to this area of the Kettle Moraine," Gonyo said. "This is another excessively large project that has been dropped on people rather than something that is going to be built to the specifications of the people who live in the area."

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