A Letter To The Editor: $59 Million KR Phase II Project

From Racine County Eye:

While many WI roads are crumbling around us, does it really make sense to spend $59 million dollars on a 2.8 mile stretch of CTR KR from H to just past Old Green Bay Road. This $59 million includes $40 million for two railroad overpasses.

But, that’s what WisDOT, and the Counties of Racine and Kenosha want to do —-All just to satisfy Foxconn, get commuters faster to the lake by several minutes, and to keep hurried commuters from possibly being inconvenienced by having to wait for a train.

Once again, homeowners in Mount Pleasant are being required to “take one for the Foxconn team” and give up land through eminent domain for projects associated with Foxconn. I would think by now, that potential homebuyers would know to steer clear of Mount Pleasant? You own your home here—-until they take it for one project or another, and then you don’t.

I am a Mount Pleasant resident along KR who stands to lose almost 100’ of her front yard through eminent domain for the 22’ median, two additional 12’ traffic lanes, an 8’ shoulder, a 10’ gap between the shoulder and the bike path, the 10’ bike path, and an additional 25’ of ROW. This huge “Super Highway” will be feet from my front door. I will never be able to sell my home in the future. Who would want it?

A SEWRPC (Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission) Study of KR was done several years ago. This Study revealed that the existing 2 lanes of KR have the capacity to handle 14,000 vehicles per day. At the time of the Study, there were 4500 to 8000 per day using KR. SEWRPC went on to say that this number was projected to increase by Year 2050 to 5000 to 9000 vehicles per day, still significantly under the maximum capacity.

What has changed? FOXCONN with its Gen 10 factory and 13,000 jobs. EXCEPT, that’s not the factory that is being built now. Instead, after all the millions of dollars being spent on infrastructure improvements, all we’re getting is a Gen 6 and 1500 jobs.

Homeowners along KR are obviously upset, and in some cases, angry. The Counties of Racine and Kenosha along with WisDOT want to INCREASE the speed limit to 50 mph in our residential neighborhood. Our children and grandchildren play in the yards that now will be so close to this road, and they wait for the school bus along it. Having a safe and prudent speed limit of 35 mph through our densely populated area would only increase the commute time by 1 minute 40 seconds, and makes sense.

Safety of residents should be of the utmost importance over commuter convenience.

Let’s rethink this project and expenditure. Perhaps, we could reduce the road footprint, eliminate the overpasses, and save some money that could be used for fixing some other roads that desperately need attention.

To move forward with this project in its current form without further study that encompasses the new direction of Foxconn is fiscally and morally irresponsible.

–Leslie Maj

From:  https://www.racinecountyeye.com/a-letter-to-the-editor-59-million-kr-phase-ii-project/?utm_source=Racine+County+Eye+user+list&utm_campaign=30b65a3925-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f4d48aa585-30b65a3925-160879425&fbclid=IwAR1XwPxRqBwEMSXjkepD2Gd2PukT6Sp0k_BG0m4yfjovNmB3g8-aNj0IRus