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Wisconsin, Highway 26 Bypass: NEPA Brings Communities to the Table
The proposed routes for the bypass would have had impacts on a wide variety of landscapes. NEPA provided the process for stakeholders to engage in discussions about the project development. "NEPA forces us into providing alternatives that are representative of the interests from all agencies involved," said James Oeth, WisDOT project manager (on contract from Earth Technologies). The 48-mile corridor encompasses three communities. As stipulated by NEPA, several alternatives were selected, studied in detail, and made available for public comment. "We made sure to have alternatives for both the east and west sides," said Oeth. "Without NEPA, we would have just asked what the shortest distance was and built the road through there," he added. The final decision was to skirt the bypass around the western border of Jefferson. According to WisDOT, this route was found to have the least impact and disruption to the community. "I believe NEPA allowed for these alterations to take place," said Andy Didion, Jefferson resident and member of the Preserve 26 Coalition, a citizens' interest group. Although not all of the community's major requests were accommodated, residents appreciated the opportunity to be involved in the process. "The DOT is getting much better and realizing this affects people's lives," said Didion, "They did their job and let everybody talk." One of the good results of the public involvement process came in moving the route to go around Ed McFarland's dairy farm, which sits west of Watertown, instead of plowing right through it. While McFarland did not agree with the decision to place the bypass around the western portion of the town, he believes the public involvement process lessened the damage. "Public involvement helped us...the less land we lose, the better," he said. Plans for the bypass stayed close to the community's urban service area, which includes land designated for development over the next ten years. As the project nears its final stages of preparation, significant consensus exists between the local residents and transportation officials because of the opportunity for early public involvement. Public input allowed local citizens and public officials to discuss important local issues that would not have otherwise be reviewed by WisDOT. Another important benefit of NEPA was the Highway 26 Corridor Planning Process, a new supplementary planning process to coordinate local planning efforts. It brought local politicians and citizens together. "We talked out problems and came up with solutions that were agreeable to most participants," said Greg David, a Jefferson County Supervisor. "The NEPA process has saved us a lot of money, and mitigated many of the externalized consequences of a freeway expansion project," he added. Photo courtesy James Oeth/WDOT; used with permission. |
Highway 26 is a regional road that runs through south-central Wisconsin, connecting Illinois to Wisconsin's Fox River Valley. In order to address increasing traffic from trucks and regional drivers, Wisconsin's Department of Transportation (WisDOT) proposed the construction of a bypass.