The proposed Verona Road/West Beltline project Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) is out. It has many plans for bike/ped facilities in the vicinity of Verona Road and the Beltline. Written comments must be in by Monday, August 15. There will be no public hearing.
Bikers might especially be interested in commenting on * plans related to getting across Verona Road close to the Beltline, * ways to cross the Beltline (There¹s no traffic-separated route right at the intersection and the bike/ped overpasses are further away than most people want to go if they are trying to get to the Dorn Hardware area or Midvale Blvd) * crossings involving the Southwest Commuter Trail, the Badger State Trail, and the Cannonball Trail, especially of Verona Road and also PD, and in Stage 3 as well as Stage 1 and 2. Some of these crossings are a veritable nightmare now. The at-grade crossing of the Beltline on Verona Road is extremely dangerous and will get worse in my opinion. The Badger Trail and Cannonball crossings of PD are at grade right now and plans for Stage 1 coming up in 2012 do NOT plan for grade separation. Traffic on PD is heavy now and travels fast, making it dangerous to cross. Traffic will only get much, much worse during the 3-year construction period when traffic will try to avoid going through the construction zone up by the Beltline. Whether they would be grade-separated a decade or so later in Stage 3 isn¹t promised either. A proposed tunnel that will connect the Beltline frontage roads on each side of Verona Road is a big improvement over the at-grade crossing 21 lanes!!! - that was proposed in the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement. However, changes to the access point to cross the Beltline on the ped/bike bridge at Whenona Drive are counter productive in my view since few bikers and even fewer pedestrians often school kids going to Cherokee or Thoreau dislike going half a block out of their way in the wrong direction and then having to double back toward their point of origin. Now the access point is at Whenona Drive with no need to cross traffic either on Whenona or anywhere else when getting on from Whenona. The newly proposed access point would mean that many peds and bikers would have to cross Whenona and/or Britta, go half a block west, then come back half a block east to get on Whenona and go down to the schools. People heading to Dorn Hardware, including myself, would probably chose to risk the at-grade crossing of the Beltline on Verona Road rather than go the extra block and then have to cross Verona Road/Midvale at-grade anyway even though they had already taken the overpass. The Stage 1 plans calls for moving the Southwest Commuter path to the west at the underpass of Verona Road. Stage 3 offers a couple of choices keeping it more or less on its same alignment or putting it on a Raymond Road bridge. I go for the straight shot myself. Availability of the FEIS The FEIS is available at many libraries and also online. You probably have to ask at the desk to see a copy. Copies don¹t circulate. If you have little time, at least study the Executive Summary which is at the beginning of Volume 1. It¹s about 25 pages long. Find the entire FEIS at these branches of the Madison Public Library: > Central Library, 201 West Mifflin Street > Alicia Ashman Branch, 733 North High Point Road > Meadowridge Branch, 5740 Raymond Road > Monroe Street Branch.1705 Monroe Street > Sequoya Branch, 4340 Tokay Boulevard (at Midvale) > South Madison Branch, 2222 South Park It¹s also available in adjacent cities: > Middleton Public Library, Main Branch, 7425 Hubbard Avenue, Middleton > Verona Public Library, Main Branch, 500 Silent Street, Verona > McFarland Public Library, Main Branch, 5920 Milwaukee Street, McFarland > Fitchburg Public Library, Main Branch, 5530 Lacy Road, Fitchburg > An electronic copy of the FEIS is available on the web at the following address: http://www.dot.wi.gov/projects/d1/verona/environment.htm <http://www.dot.wi.gov/projects/d1/verona/environment.htm> . How to comment Comments can be made by e-mail or hardcopy. By e-mail, comment to Larry Barta [email protected] In hardcopy, comment to Joe Olson, Regional Director, WisDOT, SW Region, 2101 Wright St., Madison, WI 53704-2583. The Dunn¹s Marsh Neighborhood Association, located in the southeast quadrant of this Verona Road/Beltline intersection, will definitely be commenting on a number of aspects of the FEIS, and I will make DMNA comments available on this forum in hopes that some of you will be interested in supporting the Association¹s stands. > Sorry for the length of this posting. This is a complicated project with many issues. Mary Mullen (608) 298-0843 [email protected]
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