Meeting on Kenosha County highway crash reduction plan set
BRISTOL — Kenosha County officials will host the second of two public information meetings to gather input for a plan toward eliminating serious crashes on county roadways.
The public event will be held on Thursday, Sept. 26.
A Comprehensive Safety Action Plan Committee made up of representatives of the county and all of its municipalities has been meeting since early this year, working to develop the plan.
The county was awarded a federal grant to create the plan, which will highlight hotspots with safety concerns, prioritize the concerns, and provide guidance on how to mitigate these issues with the goal of zero deaths and serious injuries on county highways.
Draft materials and exhibits will be presented and public input will be sought at the informational meeting, to be held from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in the Hearing Room at the Kenosha County Center, 19600 75th St., Bristol.
It will be an open-house-style meeting and will not include a formal presentation.
Kenosha County has contracted with the planning and engineering firm Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc. to conduct the Comprehensive Safety Action Plan study.
The group's initial findings were presented to the public at the RecPlex, 9900 Terwall Terrace, including heat maps, crash locations and severity, and other analytical data.
Josh Woller, senior project engineer with Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc., which was contracted to conduct the study, said there weren't any undue surprises based on the raw data they analyzed.
As expected, the data indicated there were more crashes in heavily-trafficked roadways, and rural roadways saw disproportionate degrees of fatal or severe crashes, due to higher speeds on smaller roads, he said.
During the public meeting, local officials shared resident's concerns and discussed aspects that may not show up in the data, Woller said. The group's formal findings will be presented later this month, and initial treatment maps were more meant to generate discussion" and get the public engaged.
"There are a lot of variables outside of the control of engineers," Woller said. "What we're trying to do is find spots we can make corrections ... and help with what we can."
Those who have questions or feedback and are unable to attend the upcoming public information meeting are invited to contact Darren Fortney, Senior Principal at Short Elliott Hendrickson, at 608-620-6191 or .
