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Board Rejects Proposed Highway Route; Washington County Vote Halts Planning for East-West Road

Posted on: Wednesday, 13 July 2005, 15:01 CDT

West Bend Planning for a new east-west highway between the city of Hartford and U.S. Highway 41 was halted Tuesday when the Washington County Board rejected a proposed route north of Highway 60.

On a 22-8 vote, the board discarded the County Highway Committee's recommendation to build the new route parallel to Highway 60, using Highway K, Kettle Moraine Drive and Arthur Road.

Though regional transportation plans adopted by the board in past years call for two additional east-west highways to serve the fast- growing county, more than two-thirds of supervisors Tuesday refused to embrace the proposed route.

Supervisors Mark McCune of the Town of Erin and Joan Russell of Hartford urged supervisors to endorse the route now so that it could be designed and built to help meet future traffic demand in the heavily traveled corridor between Slinger and Hartford.

"I do believe we need to get something started," McCune said. Planning for the route must continue so that the county would be ready to construct it when federal funds became available, he said.

Supervisors Maurice Strupp of the Town of Hartford and Kenneth Brandt of Addison said they did not think the proposed northern route would divert much traffic away from Highway 60.

"I have talked to many truckers who have said they will not drive four to five miles out of their way," said Strupp, a member of the Highway Committee who voted against the proposal. The Highway K exit is more than 3 miles north of Highway 60.

Strupp and several other supervisors suggested that the only current bottleneck on Highway 60 is in downtown Hartford at the intersection with Highway 83.

Supervisor John Kohl of Richfield said that Hartford could ask for state highway money to help rebuild the intersection.

"That's the way to go at this time," said Kohl, a member of the Highway Committee who also opposed the northern route.

The eight supervisors voting for the plan were Herb Tennies of West Bend, Paul Beistle of Slinger, Tom Sackett and Russell of the city of Hartford, McCune, David Radermacher and Dan Goetz of Richfield, and James Spindler of the village of Germantown.

Several Arthur Road homeowners attending Tuesday's meeting applauded after the vote was announced.

In the northern route recommended last month by a majority of the Highway Committee, traffic from U.S. Highway 41 could exit at Highway K and drive west to Kettle Moraine Drive. Vehicles would turn south on Kettle Moraine and then southwest on a new section of road designed to skirt an electrical substation near the intersection of Kettle Moraine and Highway 175. The new pavement would extend west about 1 mile across open land north of a cluster of residences along Arthur Road before bending south to meet Arthur Road.

In June, the committee rejected its earlier recommendation for a possible southern route parallel to Highway 60 using Pioneer and Waterford roads. Committee members at the time cited higher construction costs, greater environmental impacts and the opposition of the Town of Richfield.

Copyright 2005, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved. (Note: This notice does not apply to those news items already copyrighted and received through wire services or other media.)

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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