Railroad throws a wrench in bike trail work

Repaving and widening of the rural portions of the Ozaukee Interurban Trail began this week but only after another controversy cropped up that could potentially interfere with the project.

Last week, officials with Ozaukee County, which operates the trail, were startled when Port Washington Mayor Ted Neitzke suggested it may be necessary to reroute the trail where it winds through Knellsville, which has been annexed by the city because of development of a data center complex.

Neitzke even suggested that a bike bridge may have to be built across I-43.

Neitzke’s suggestion came just days before work was to begin repaving the trail from the Milwaukee River in Grafton through Belgium to the Sheboygan County line, a $1.2 million project funded primarily through a grant from the state Department of Transportation.

Then members of the county Natural Resources Committee were told last week that the paving project may be halted temporarily because of objections filed by Union Pacific Railroad.

County Planning and Parks Director Andrew Struck said the railroad and state DOT had signed off on the project and the county was given the go-ahead to start work.

But other railroad officials unexpectedly weighed in and objected to work being done on a spur used by businesses in Belgium.

The railroad also claimed that about a quarter mile of the trail is within the railroad right of way, as is a We Energies electrical substation, and that about 200 feet are actually on railroad property.

“The railroad has told us to move it (the bike trail), which, of course, is not possible,” Struck said.

In addition, the railroad is requiring the county to pay for flaggers to ward off paving workers from wandering onto the railroad right of way, he said.

That would be a $20,000 to $30,000 expense, he estimated, which the state grants funding the paving project will not cover.

“That’s not in our budget,” Struck said.

The bike trail follows the path of the Interurban Electric Railway, which operated from 1908 to 1951 and ran from Milwaukee to Sheboygan.

In 1998, Ozaukee County and several municipalities received state funding to lease the land from Wisconsin Electric, now We Energies, which owns the old Interurban railroad bed, and completed the trail.

“The parcel lines are historic and pretty fluid,” Struck acknowledged, acknowledging its possible the Union Pacific has a valid argument.

Struck said the county is hamstrung in dealing with the railroad and its demands.

“The people we’re dealing with are not in Wisconsin,” he said. “They’re in California.”

Plus, the state insists on being the lead agency in the dispute, he said.

“The DOT wants to take the lead because it has some statewide ramifications,” Struck said.

Supervisors on the committee openly speculated that the motivation behind the railroad’s pronouncements was political and related to disagreements between the county and the railroad over maintaining crossings in the county and other projects.

Meanwhile, paving work on the trail began this week, starting near the bike bridge that crosses the Milwaukee River in Grafton.

The trail from there to the southern outskirts of the City of Port Washington constitutes the first phase of the project, with the second and third phases being the sections from the northern Port city limits north to the Sheboygan County line.

Struck said he expects the first phase to be finished by August.

Farm crossings on the trail in that stretch will be closed for a time, Struck said, but hopefully will not be too disruptive to farmers.

“Letters went out to landowners. Hopefully , they (closings) will be limited, no more than 24 or 48 hours at a time,” Struck told the committee. “We can’t have heavy equipment like tractors on the trail.”

The trail itself will be closed to bicyclists where work is being done, he said.

He said alternate routes will be posted for bicyclists but there is no official detour.