Greetings fellow bikies: Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk sent out a letter I thought you'd be interested in. County Highway KP, a favorite route for bicycling in west/northwestern Dane County, is scheduled for reconstruction. Two elected officials from the Town of Black Earth expressed interest in having a bike lane/shoulder included in the construction project. The County Executive's office agreed to make this addition, and noted a price tag of $600K.
In applauding this action, I noted to the County Executive's office that this investment is "pound wise," as I've seen close up - in slogging up hills and against head winds - the effects of scrimping on shoulder width. Where the edge of the pavement is close to where the traffic flows, the edge quickly deteriorates, reducing the useful life of the reconstruction project. Thanks to the County Executive and her staff for making this positive change to a much needed reconstruction project. Al Matano > April 9, 2010 > > > Chairman Ken Olson > Supervisor Don Ripp > Town of Black Earth > 1704 Blue Mound Street > Black Earth, Wisconsin 53515 > > Dear Chair Olson and Supervisor Ripp: > > Thank you so much for writing to me about County Trunk Highway KP and your > excellent suggestions to widen the road to accommodate safer bike travel > at the same time that the state is repaving the county trunk highway. > > As you know, County Trunk Highway KP had a major increase in traffic last > summer when the State of Wisconsin repaired Highway 14 and redirected some > traffic to County Trunk Highway KP. Because of this there was included in > the state budget by Senator Jon Erpenbach additional dollars for the > state to repave and improve County Trunk Highway KP. The state is > planning to do so this summer. > > Because of your good suggestion (one shared by others in your town), I > asked our County Highway Department to determine what we could do at the > county level to create a separate 3-foot wide bike lane to accommodate > safer bike/road travel. They developed a plan to accomplish greater bike > and automobile safety at a reasonable cost. We will replace a number of > culverts and significantly widen the shoulder the along KP the entire > route in order to accommodate safer bike travel. The widened and clearly > painted shoulder is what most people refer to as a bikepath when we > improve highways although the wider shoulders also strengthens automobile > safety. This will cost about $600,000 in county dollars and the County > Highway Department is planning to do this at the time of state > construction. Construction will start in a week or two. > > I am pleased that we are able to improve this road and I totally > appreciate your suggestions and efforts. Thank you. > > Sincerely, > > Kathleen Falk > Dane County Executive > > > Topf Wells > Topf Wells > Chief of Staff > Dane County Executive's Office > Room 421, City-County Building > Madison, Wisconsin 53703 > (608) 266-9069 > (608) 266-9138 TDD > (608) 266-2643 Fax > [email protected] > www.co.dane.wi.us > > > _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
