DC Hwy B project could be delayed to 2024
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MENOMONIE — Although Dunn County is proceeding as if the county Highway B project from U.S. Highway 12 to just past the Exit 45 truck stop will occur in 2023, there is a real possibility it will be delayed until 2024.
A request has been submitted to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to extend the deadline for spending state and federal grant money, said Dustin Binder, Dunn County Highway commissioner, at the Dunn County Highway Committee’s December 14 meeting.
The deadline for spending the money is 2024, and the project must be complete by July 1, 2024. The project will start in May and be finished in November, so there would be no way to complete the project in 2024 without an extension, he said.
The south portion of the Highway B project is a $6.5 million project, and the north portion is a $2.5 million project.
The cost of the south portion of the county Highway B project will include $5.1 million in Wisconsin Department of Transportation funding from Highways 12/29 to I-94 covered by an 80/20 State Transportation Aid grant (STP).
From I-94 to the area near the railroad tracks by the Exit 45 truck stop, the cost will be $2.48 million with $1 million in WisDOT funding through Multimodal Local Supplement (MLS) and Local Road Improvement (LRIP) grants and $1.48 million for the county’s portion.
The total expenditure for new construction will be $11.1 million, with $6.6 million from WisDOT and $4.4 million from Dunn County.
Without the extension, if the projects are not completed by the deadline in 2024, Dunn County will be responsible for paying the entire amount.
Railroad
Dunn County is requesting the extension because of the railroad debacle, Binder said.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation was supposed to be working with Union Pacific Railroad to coordinate the work on the railroad crossing by the Exit 45 truck stop so the crossing is completed first, he said.
At the November meeting of the Dunn County Highway Committee, Binder reported that he had recently met with representatives for Union Pacific Railroad and WisDOT.
It turned out to be not a very good meeting because there was a miscommunication between Union Pacific and WisDOT, he said.
Nothing at all had been done with the project, and Union Pacific did not know a thing about it, Binder said.
The Union Pacific representatives said the projects can be bid out, but the work may not happen because the railroad crossing must be done as part of the project, he said.
The Union Pacific process for redesigning a railroad crossing is typically a 14-month process, but now it would have to be done in three months in order for the projects to be bid out this winter, Binder said.
While Highway B is under construction, traffic in both directions will be routed to one side of the road.
While the railroad crossing is under construction, which is expected to take place in May, traffic will be detoured on county Highway E to Highway 12/29 for two weeks.
Since Highway B became a four-lane in 1992, semi-truck traffic has increased in the area, and the semi-trucks have problems turning because the lanes are too narrow.
The semi-trucks have to swing wide to make their turns, and part of the project will be to improve the turning capabilities for the semi-trucks.
There is currently no traffic signal at Badger Drive (Love’s Travel Stop and the Exit 45 truck stop), and the intersection becomes congested, so the project will include a traffic signal, new pavement and turn lane improvements.
The traffic signal will be coordinated with the railroad crossing signal so that no traffic is on the tracks when a train is coming.
The new Highway B will have 12-foot lanes and 10-foot shoulders.
Shifting projects
In order for the funding extension to occur, WisDOT will have to find another project with the same project costs of $6.5 million planned for 2024 that could be shifted to 2023 to use the money so that the Dunn County project could be shifted to 2024, Binder said.
That is a specific amount of money, and there may not be any other projects available to be shifted or capable of being shifted because of the design and bidding timelines for the other projects, he said.
The plan is to continue forward right now as if the project is going to take place in 2023, Binder said.
Another problem is that project costs always increase from year to year, and delaying the project by a year will end up costing more money, he said.
Crossing costs
In addition, the Wisconsin Commissioner of Railroads has determined that Dunn County will “be on the hook” for part of the cost of the railroad crossing upgrade, Binder said.
The estimate to upgrade the railroad crossing in 2018 was $540,000. Dunn County may end up paying 20 percent of the cost, he said,
A turn lane was added to the project, and the turn lane will be Dunn County’s responsibility, Binder said.
The turn lane will be “offset” and wider so there is visibility around vehicles, and there will need to be another traffic signal for the turn lane. The turn lane will be both northbound and southbound, he said.
Yet another problem is the detour and the shutting down of Highway B while the work is being done on the railroad crossing, Binder said.
If Dunn County shuts down the railroad crossing to road traffic, it is the railroad that determines when the road is opened back up, and the road could be shut down “for years,” he said.
Along with the request for an extension on the project, work also is being done on a different traffic plan to deal with the detour of traffic because of the railroad crossing, Binder said.
