North Beltline, Dane County, Wisconsin

A Published Proposed Route of North Beltline Highway in Dane County (click for larger image)

A proposed route of the North Beltline Highway according to the Wisconsin State Journal. The green line shows a possible routing which generally follows current roadways, while the blue highlight is the approximate route of the new Middleton bypass which will be built as a separate project. The recommended route map from the North Mendota Parkway Advisory Committee shows a slightly different path and more details.

I wrote this nearly four years ago, and have just added some references to reports and recommendations of the North Mendota Parkway Advisory Committee and its report. I am concerned that the recommendation does not really take a long view of traffic demands or population growth north of Lake Mendota. There is no evidence that the explosive growth rate of Waunakee will stop any time soon. While I can see why you don't let roadbuilders decide to do whatever they want, you also cannot let local committees decide what is adequate for a regional connector.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation may not have started to build the US-12 expressway from Middleton to Sauk Prairie, but it's still time for us to start planning for a North Beltline that connects US-12 to the Interstate north of Lake Mendota. County Executive Kathleen Falk doesn't want us to leap before we look. She says that we need to make changes today to improve safety and convenience in this area. I agree with both, but I do not agree that it's not time to start to plan a North Beltline, too. It takes time to build highways. If we plan now, we can meet the needs of county residents, minimize the impact of such a large project, and save money when the project is built. If we do not engage both in tactical improvements and a strategic plan for these communities, we will make sprawl worse and lose all ability to encourage development in cost-effective locations.

Sun Prairie, Windsor, Waunakee and Middleton are growing both as residential areas and as centers of employment. The traffic to and from these towns continues to increase. If we start planning new, we will have this road ready when it is needed. Right now, there are undeveloped routes that can be used. We cannot wait until we have added 100,000 new residents to Dane County to decide that we need a new highway.

Transit is not an option here. People are too spread out and go to too many places for it to work. Policy decisions and business preferences have led to substantial growth in employment opportunities throughout the county. New places of employment are much more spread out than they used to be and people choose where they live in the county with less concern about where they might work today or tomorrow. People who may have had a job in the same town they lived in may find that their next job is 15 miles away, or that their employer moved the business 10 miles away. Maybe one member of the household works in Sun Prairie and one in Middleton. We can hardly tell them not to commute.

Two other possible corridors for the North Beltline Highway in Dane County (click for larger image)

Two other possible corridors for the North Beltline Highway. The light green line shows a possible routing which helps connect the Middleton to Sun Prairie corrider in a more direct fashion than the route published in the State Journal. This could also be extended to US-151 along WI-19. The dark green corridor goes around Waunakee and would join the Interstate near the ABS development and might also be extended to US-151.

One proposed route, the one mapped out in the first map here, goes west on WI-19 from I-39/90/94 to WI-113, south on 113 to County M, west on M to County K, west on K to US-12. Is the route on this map the best choice? I have no idea. I have shown two other possible corridors to consider. The first one is a more direct version of the one in the State Journal, while the second one runs north of Waunakee. That's why it needs to be planned. I do know that it can easily take 15 years from start to finish to build a major highway. I also know that as development continues in Dane County, we will have fewer cost-effective options to consider, even as the need becomes greater.

Our governments have taken on the responsibility to provide roads. In Dane County, that means preparing for modern growth patterns and modern development trends. Planning for a connector like the North Beltline is one way to meet that responsibility. Let's follow the lead of the folks in the Fox Valley who planned for WI-441 decades before it was built. Let's map the North Beltline now.

Even under the most optimistic conditions, this road would not be built for 10-15 years. It may not need to be built for 20 years. Maybe, it will never need to be built, but I doubt it. Whatever the case, it made sense when the Dane County RPC recommended that we start reserving transportation corridors in Vision 2020 and it still makes sense for us to start planning now so developers, farmers and taxpayers can be prepared for it.

Let's Plan Now for the North Beltline