Placating Union Pacific to cost county $25,000

Ozaukee County supervisors voted recently to spend almost $25,000 to hire a real estate consultant to coordinate rerouting the Ozaukee Interurban Trail in Belgium to placate the Union Pacific railroad, which says the trail is too close to its right of way.

“We’re over the (right of way) line by a couple feet; that’s the issue here,” county Planning and Parks Director Andrew Struck told supervisors on the Natural Resources Committee.

The county is finishing up the design and engineering to repave 13 miles of trail north of Port Washington.

The project is being paid for with a state Department of Transportation grant.

The process has required “significant coordination with Union Pacific to assess any (railroad) right of way impacts, particularly in the Village of Belgium,” Struck said in a memo to the committee.

The property lines are a mishmash involving private and public parcels as well as the railroad and the bike trail, which follows that path of another railroad, the old Interurban Electric Railway.

Union Pacific initially approved the project plans but later told the county that portions of the existing trail encroach on its right of way south of Highway D and adjacent to the We Energies substation north of Main Street.

The railroad subsequently required that those trail sections be moved off its right of way.

In response, the county coordinated with its consultant, the Village of Belgium and the Belgium Fire Department to move the trail east on the south side of Main Street, follow Main Street and Elm Street and then reconnect to the existing trail north of the We Energies substation.

“The village and fire department have been very helpful,” Struck said.

Then the DOT required that a real estate consultant complete property appraisals and coordinate other real estate requirements at a cost of $24,810, which includes a $3,510 contingency.

“We’re lucky that we get to make the best of a bad situation, thanks to the village,” Committee Chairman Rob Holyoke said.

In addition to those issues, the railroad is requiring the county to pay for flaggers during the repaving process, expected to cost the county $20,000 to $30,000, even though none of the work will be on railroad property.

“We’ll be a good distance from the railroad, but not good enough,” Struck said.

He added that trucks involved in the repaving work will not be using railroad crossings.

The grant covering the approximately  $1.2 million to pave the trail north of Port Washington cannot be used to pay for the flaggers or real estate consultant, Struck said.

The trail is a paved 30-mile multi-use bicycle and pedestrian path that traverses the entire county from north to south, following the route of the former Interurban Electric Railway.

The current trail is 10 feet wide with one-foot gravel shoulders on either side. The repaving project will widen the trail to 12 feet to satisfy federal regulations.

Work on the trail south of Port Washington was completed last year. Work on the northern portion began last year but came to halt when construction on the Vantage Data Centers Lighthouse began.