By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer
HOWARD – Agreements to reconstruct portions of Lineville Road were unanimously approved June 8 by the village board.
Director of Public Works Geoff Farr said the village has budgeted for the reconstruction of Lineville Road (County M), which will be administered by Brown County as a county highway.
“It is a very busy road,” he said. “It is expected to grow in the future. It currently experiences congestion at peak travel times.”
Farr said it’s anticipated the majority of Lineville Road would be reconstructed as a four-lane roadway with the goal of increasing pedestrian and vehicular safety.
“There would be a median east of Velp Avenue, so that you could not make left-hand turns,” he said. “From Velp Avenue to Highway 41 it would be a solid median.”
Farr said an asphalt trail 10-12 feet wide is planned on the north side of Lineville Road to keep pedestrians and bicycles out of the lanes of traffic.
A sidewalk, Farr said, would be on the south side of the road between Belmont Road to Velp Avenue.
“The first portion of the roadway from Velp west is planned for 2024, and the remainder from Velp toward 41 is (going to be reconstructed in) 2025,” he said.
Farr said the county will be paying for half of the eligible project costs with the villages of Howard and Suamico sharing in the other half.
“Because Howard has a little section (north of Lineville Road) at Lineville Intermediate School, we do have a larger share in that area,” he said. “But everything is basically split 50-50 (between the county and the two villages)…”
Farr said Howard has budgeted about $5 million for the project, and the current estimate calls for the village’s share to be around $5.5 million.
“But is very early to tell what the costs will be, because designers have not been engaged at this point,” he said.
However, Farr said constant designs will occur over the next year along with public involvement in the project to determine budgeting estimates.
“These are pretty grand budget costs at this time,” he said. “I know one of the big items will be dealing with the intersection of Velp and Lineville, which is always congested, primarily in part due to the railroad.”
Farr said he expects a two-way, left-turn area in the median will remain by Piggly Wiggly, because of the many driveways that exist there.
“Even though there would likely be roundabouts at both ends for people to turn around, that would be a pretty tough sell (to eliminate the left-turn lane for safety),” he said.
Farr said he expects additional lanes to create right-turn bays will be part of the reconstruction project to help alleviate traffic congestion at roundabouts or intersections.
He said all the major intersections will have large left-turn bays because of semi trucks traveling in different directions.
Farr said the paved trail planned on the north side of Lineville Road would accommodate bicycles away from the lanes of traffic, instead of having two 5-foot bike lanes along the roadway.
“In the end, it ends up being really the same section (with a paved trail) – a little easier to maintain and probably safer for pedestrians and bicyclists when traffic is traveling 35-40 mph,” he said.