SOURCE: Waukesha Freeman
Residents ready for plan to ease congestion on Merrill Hills Road
By Jon Voils
Special to The Freeman
WAUKESHA – A county public works engineer and the construction project manager outlined a fouryear timeline for the West Waukesha Bypass to an interested group of Sunset Drive business owners Friday morning.
Gary Evans, Public Works engineering services manager, and Charlie Webb, CH2M Hill’s West Waukesha Bypass project manager, spoke to the Southside Business Council, part of the Waukesha County Business Alliance. The group met Friday morning at Culver’s on West Sunset Drive to get an update on the plan.
The bypass project will connect Interstate 94 with state Highway 59 along the County Highway TT corridor. Highway TT is also known as Meadowbrook Road or Merrill Hills Road as it passes through neighborhoods west of downtown Waukesha.
“We have three construction alternatives,” said Webb. “One: Do nothing. Two: Widen Meadowbrook and Merrill Hills roads to four lanes from 94 to just north of Sunset Drive and then follow a parallel path along Pebble Creek south to Highway 59. Or three: Follow Pebble Creek to Sunset as in choice two, then follow Sunset east to County Highway X, make a sharp turn and build southwest to Highway 59.”
Both men spoke about completing an environmental impact statement to allay concerns brought by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers regarding wetlands and regional aquifers. According to Evans, “At this stage we’re moving ahead.”
Evans said an EIS draft will be submitted in late June or early July. This document will be published for 45 days, during which time public meetings will be held seeking comment from the community. The final EIS will be filed in November or early December.
Approval is expected in late January 2013 and the statement will be written into record in late February or March of 2013. Construction is expected to extend from 2014 to 2016.
Longtime Merrill Hills residents Larry Arnson and his wife attended the Friday meeting.
Arnson said he is glad to see the project move forward.
“They developed this idea 50 years ago and we’ve seen six different plans,” he said. “The Sunset and Merrill Hills intersection is congested. There are over 1,600 cars and trucks traveling through every day.The bypass is overdue.”
The idea of a bypass around the city of Waukesha was first discussed in the mid-1950s, according to Waukesha District 11 Alderman Roger Patton, who attended the meeting. The main reason was to relieve congestion by diverting pass-through traffic around the city. The eastern portion was completed in the 1980s. Problems specific to the western portion, including the existence of wetlands, have delayed construction for years.
The construction budget is $50.7 million. Of that amount, $40 million will be paid by the state, $8.6 million will come from the county and the city of Waukesha will pay $2 million.
For more information about the bypass project, log on to www.waukeshabypass.org.
