Section of Shady Lane will be shut down Monday: Moon Road due to be completed Friday

By Brian D. Bridgeford / News Republic

 

 

Travellers expecting to take Shady Lane west of Highway 12 will have to find new routes beginning Monday when Highway 12 Bypass construction shuts down a section of that road, while work on Moon Road is due for completion Friday.

Traveling from Baraboo, signs of progress on the Wisconsin Department of Transportation project are visible along the way to Lake Delton.

Just north of Terrytown Road an interchange for the bypass is outlined in concrete curb and gutter, sans pavement. It includes on and off ramps for vehicles rolling on the new highway, two circles of a roundabout, storm drains and even highway lighting.

At the north end of the bypass the westbound lane of Moon Road was shut down Tuesday as workers finished a driveway for the Wisconsin Opry, Wisconsin Dells Antique Mall and Wisconsin Dells Craft Mall. The abutments of a bridge taking lanes of the bypass over Moon/Fern Dell roads loomed over workers using a paving machine, rakes and a pavement roller to pack black asphalt in place.

Moon Road will be completely open with pavement markings and traffic signs in place Friday, said Jon Maxwell, an engineer with Baraboo-based MSA Professional Services working on the bypass.

"As of Friday evening, we’re supposed to have that completely open with new signing and stuff like that," he said.

Because the bridge contractor, Lunda Construction of Black River Falls, will use a large crane to hoist beams into place for the bridge, DOT has delayed putting down one layer of asphalt on Moon Road until bridge work is done, Maxwell said.

"We just put the lower layers down," he said. "If we do any damage we can fix the lower layers and put a nice surface on the top so it looks like a brand new road."

On Monday workers will shut down Shady Lane west of Highway 12 as they tear out the town road to build a bridge taking the lane over new Highway 12, said Mark Wittenberg, a bridge inspector for DOT.

"They’ll be digging out Shady Lane," he said.

According to an update by DOT engineer Anne Wallace, no public traffic will be allowed on Shady Lane until the bridge is completed and it re-opens May 28. Vehicles traveling west of existing USH 12 will have to select their own routes because there will be no posted detour.

The grading firm, Mashuda Contractors of Princeton, is scheduled to end earth moving on the bypass project for the winter on Dec. 11. They return to work in mid to late April, Wallace reported.

Maxwell said, depending on cooperation by the weather, area residents might see crews from Lunda Construction continuing bridge work in winter months.

"As long as it’s not below freezing consistently they’ll probably keep working along out here one way or the other," he said. "They really want to get at least the girders up on the bridges over Moon Road."

In the last week of April Highway 33 west of existing Highway 12 will be closed as workers complete a bridge taking Highway 33 over the bypass between Baraboo and Reedsburg, Wallace reported. Traffic will be detoured onto Highway 136 west from Baraboo to Rock Springs then north to the Highway 136 intersection with Highway 33 just east of Reedsburg.

The detour will last about 30 days with traffic routed back over Highway 33 using the new bridge May 28, according to Wallace.

Maxwell said Mashuda’s grading work and Lunda’s construction of the bridges are proceeding on schedule with a completion date of Nov. 19, 2010. The next phase of bypass construction is paving the road surface and DOT has not put out bids yet for a contractor to do that job.

"(Paving work) plans on being let sometime next year," Maxwell said. "The bypass will be open to traffic sometime in 2011, the fall of 2011."

The Highway 12 Bypass field office is at the west end of Lake Delton’s Sinclair gas station, just north of Great Wolf Lodge. Bypass staff and DOT Project Engineer Dale Merten can be reached at the field office — (608) 254-1913; and Merten may be reached via e-mail — Dale.Merten@dot.wi.gov.

 

Send e-mail to bbridgeford@capitalnewspapers.com