Waukesha County highway traffic backup; solution proposed
Waukesha County highway traffic backup; solution proposed
A proposal has Highway K, also known as Lisbon Road, expanding to four lanes.
SUSSEX, Wis. - Neighbors will be the first to tell you, there's a six-mile stretch of Highway K in Waukesha County that always has traffic.
Relief may still be years away.
What we know:
When traffic backs up outside of Lannon Sone in Sussex, it can put truck drivers on a rocky road.
Lannon Stone development director Nate Swinton said 100 dump trucks stop at the quarry every day during the summer.
It’s one of the reasons Waukesha County leaders say Highway K has a high crash rate, nearly three and a half times the state average.
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"If they stay parked here for several minutes at a time, that can mean one or two less loads throughout the course of the day," Swinton said. "We’ve got a lot of conditions that lead to people wanting to pop around real quick and maintain high speeds – that’s where unsafe conditions come in."
The Waukesha County Department of Public Works has a $100 million solution. A proposal has Highway K, also known as Lisbon Road, expanding to four lanes.
Dig deeper:
Officials also say up to 34 freight trains pass through daily.
Brett Wallace is the county public works engineering services manager. He said the project would include an overpass at the tracks.
"When you add that up over the course of a year and monetize people’s time, commercial trucking time – you’re talking almost $2M of cost in that delay," Wallace said.
He is hopeful Waukesha County will secure federal funding to cover 80% of the cost.
Local perspective:
Mae Mehringer has lived on a farm for 50 years. She said the county started talking about a solution to all the traffic in 2007.
"In front of our house, we have 11,700 vehicles per day going through," Mehringer said.
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Mehringer said something has to be done, even if it comes at a cost to one of the homes on her property.
"They would have to tear that down, I would assume," she said. "I’d rather see it torn down than to have the door right up to the front door."
What we know:
There is a meeting this Wednesday, July 9, at the Sussex Civic Center to discuss the project and gather feedback from the community.
For more information on the meeting, visit Waukesha County's website.
The Source: The information in this post was collected and produced by FOX6 News.