[Reprinted from the Wisconsin State Journal, Thursday, October 19, 1995. -Ed.]
By Ron Seely, Environmental reporter
Dozens of Madison residents let the state Department of Transportation know Wednesday night that they're not happy with the agency's plans to expand Highway 12 to four lanes between Middleton and Sauk City.
More than 200 people attended a hearing on the proposal before the Dane County Regional Planning Commission.
Just about everyone who spoke at the hearing said they were against the project They included Madison attorney Ann Fleischli, known mostly for her dogged opposition to the Monona Terrace Convention Center, who let the commission members know the highway proposal has become the latest object of her disaffection.
Fleischli called the $61 million highway expansion plan the "second sleaziest building project" in the state.
Others who spoke may have been less colorful in their opposition but were against the highway nonetheless. They said they are worried the proposed four-lane will further clog Madison's West Side streets with traffic, bring development to the rural Dane County landscape, and ruin the rare and expansive forests and wildlife habitat of the Baraboo Hills in Sauk County.
Several West Side Madison residents said they fear a flood of traffic funneling onto their streets if the highway is expanded. I live on Old Middleton Road," said Jeffrey Golden, "and just trying to get out in the morning with my children is quite a battle."
Bill Fitzpatrick, who heads the Spring Harbor Neighborhood Association on Madison's West Side, said the plan will cause chaos on some Madison streets including University Avenue, Old Middleton Road, Old Sauk Road and Lake Mendota Drive.
Kathryn Bush, who lives on Old Middleton Road, said the traffic on University Avenue is now so heavy she can't cross the street to reach a bus stop. And turning onto University Avenue during rush hours requires a four-to-seven-minute wait Bush added.
Rob Kennedy, director of the New Transportation Alliance, a group which opposed the proposed four-lane expansion, criticized the DOT for not providing more detailed information on the accidents it cites as the main reason for expanding the highway.
The agency's draft environmental impact statement, Kennedy said, does not include data, for example, on how many of the accidents are alcohol-related.
Kennedy, along with several others, said the DOT did not adequately study how an improved two-lane would reduce accidents.
Tom Carlsen, director of the DOT's District One, attended the hearing. He said that many of the concerns raised at the hearing will be addressed in the agency's final environmental impact statement due out in the spring.
Carlsen added that traffic will increase on Highway 12 even if it remains a two-lane highway. And he said heavy traffic on Madison streets like University Avenue may be due more to development in Madison than anything else.
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