Left, Church Street looking north. City leaders are looking to streamline intersections and add bike lanes to the city’s main corridor. (City-Times photo)

Federal and state laws prevents “no build”, four lane options; city required to make safety changes on main corridor

By Brandi Makuski

A proposed massive remodeling project for Bus. 51 in Stevens Point has come to a grinding halt.

Area residents packed Lincoln Center Monday night for an update on the Bus. 51 overhaul, which is slated to begin in 2016. Public opinion has been mixed on the overall project, but consistent sticking points for area residents include the use of roundabouts as well as changing some of the high- traffic four- lane segments of the road to a proposed two- lane with raised median including bike lanes.

Despite those objections, city officials say it was restrictions within state and federal law- not public outcry- which have tied their hands from keeping some areas of the corridor as a four-lane road. Mayor Andrew Halverson and Director of Public Works Scott Schatschneider said officials from the Wisconsin Dept. of Transportation require the city to implement “multi-modal” lanes on the reconstructed road, meaning any discussion on bike lanes and four-lane versus two-lane is moot.

“There was obviously a lot of concern and consternation about the project in general, as well as some misconceptions that we wanted to take upon ourselves internally to go through,” Halverson said. “We wanted to analyze the project from a standpoint of simply tearing the road up and putting it back down exactly the way it is; the feasibility of that as an alternative from a cost point of view and from a regulatory point of view. We wanted to do the exercise internally, and what would happen if we rejected all state and federal funding, and if we were able to ultimately get away from any regulations and requirements.”

Halverson said he, Schatschneider and other city officials had gone back to the drawing board to prepare a “no- build” presentation for area residents, an option which would simply replace the roadway pavement without addressing the road width, bike lanes or intersection alignment. This option had already been considered- and discarded- by local engineering firm AECOM after it was hired to design a new corridor for the city, but local officials said pressure from the public forced them to rethink their options.

Halverson said even if the city rejected all outside funding, it would still be held to federal and state regulations, as Bus. 51 is considered part of the federal highway system, which means excluding bike lanes from the project aren’t an option.

“Given the fact that we are on the federal highway system, public transportation (WisDOT) and highway (Federal Highway Administration) are our partners,” Schatschneider said. “I had put together a presentation to talk about where we had been, where we could go, I had numbers on putting it (roadway pavement) back exactly the way it is. The DOT conferred with federal highway and we got a call back Friday afternoon that said ‘time out- this is a national highway system and we have requirements. We’re requiring you to come up with alternatives for multi-modal forms of transportation’. So this presentation I’ve put together has really changed a lot since Friday.”

The Wisconsin DOT transferred jurisdiction of Bus. 51 to the City of Stevens Point several years ago, for which it paid the city just over $6 million for updating the long- neglected road. Despite the city’s ownership of the roadway, Halverson said a federal law known as MAP- 21 , which was signed by President Obama in 2012, makes any municipality’s main arterial roadway a part of the federal highway system, subject to federal regulations as well as federal grant money.

“So ultimately there are some very simple updates,” Halverson said Monday night. “The regulations that the DOT and federal highway would require us to design are within certain parameters. The question is, can we build it any way we’d like if we only use our money? The answer is no. We will have to build that road to their requirements whether we chose to use state and federal money or not.”

On Monday the city announced it had won a $2.7 million grant from WisDOT, which Schatschneider said would be used to offset construction costs of the rebuild from the southern end of the city limits to Heffron Street.

No decisions were made on the project’s future Monday, which was listed on the agenda as a discussion-only item, though City Council Members said they had lots of questions.

“I don’t understand how we don’t have a choice to do nothing, yet they’re going to require us to spend more money,” said Alderman Randy Stroik. “I would think we’re in a position of authority here- why aren’t they paying for the concept and the design if it’s their way or no way? I think we should hold out for (grant) money. I’m not understanding where the leverage is.”

Stroik added if the city was bound by state and federal requirements, then those entities should also be responsible for widening the drivable area beneath the underpass.

“We generate 85 percent of the traffic that goes under there, and now we have to give half of that roadway to pedestrians and bikes? That doesn’t make any sense to me,” Stroik said.

Stroik, along with nearly every other Council Member present Monday night, asked Halverson to bring a DOT official to a future meeting to answer questions before city leaders move forward. Halverson agreed, but also said the state and federal regulations couldn’t be ignored.

“When we go to the state with (proposed no-build) reports, they would reject those plans. This is where AECOM should be commended for having the foresight to create so many alternatives; the DOT knows we already have alternatives that meet the regulations,” Halverson said. “The idea of going to a four- lane that buys up so much real estate would automatically be rejected because of the impacts it would have.”