WISCONSIN RAPIDS, WI (WSAU) — City leaders in Wisconsin Rapids are asking residents to continue providing feedback on the city’s railroad crossing study.
Mayor Shane Blaser says they’ve completed their latest study on the issue, which is still a long way from any significant action. Though he thinks there are some small, short-term solutions that they could implement.
“It lays out a lot of different options,” said Blaser. “Now is the time for people to kind of read it and digest it before we have a conversation at the City Council level. I think there are some short-term things we can do without making an underpass or overpass, which in today’s dollars would be about $33 million.”
Blaser says those short-term fixes could include creating “quiet hours” at night when trains couldn’t blow their horns unless it would appear that danger is near. However, that doesn’t solve the biggest problem, which is the traffic jams that can occur near railroad crossings.
“Many times throughout the day and week our intersections are getting choked by rail,” said Blaser.
He says he wants the dialog to be part of a bigger conversation about Riverview Expressway, which will be in need of repair soon. “In my opinion, it’s getting to the end of its life. I think there is a greater discussion that can happen in the next few years regarding the reconstruction of an intersection with an underpass.”
Blaser expects that the City Council will hold a Committee of the Whole discussion on the issue sometime in March. Between now and that residents are encouraged to keep providing feedback to their Alders or City Hall on the issue.
Other topics Mayor Blaser discussed with WSAU’s Mike Leischner include:
Start of video- preparations for summer golf season
3:30- Shopo building development
6:25- 8th street project
10:10- Rail study update
14:00- Spring primary tomorrow
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