Underpass near Turtle Lake under US Hwy 8.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation and several municipalities in the State of Wisconsin have begun installing underpasses for off-roaders in an attempt to limit at-grade crossings on busy highways across the state. These crossings are notoriously dangerous, either for the amount of traffic on the highway, the speeds, the overall width or number of lanes to cross or even visibility, such as around highway corners.
These work kind of the same as a freeway overpass or any bridge over another highway, only, the off-roaders don’t have ramps to enter the highway. There is no need because the off-roaders don’t need to get onto the highway. Simply, they cross under the highway without impacts to vehicle traffic above or sometimes below if there is a bridge for off-roaders.
Safer for everyone…
The main benefit to these underpasses is grade separation, in other words, traffic on the highway does not have to worry about cross traffic, in this case, in the form of atvs and utvs.
The off-roaders don’t have to contend with trying to cross the road, which is where most of the problems come into play.
The intersections with roads, at-grade, or “ordinary” intersections, are dangerous to off-roaders, mainly because off-roaders usually are waiting long periods of time to cross, they become impatient and “gun it” usually with nothing more then the cross traffic having to brake for the off-roaders out of concern that they won’t make it in time. There is the occasional instance where a traffic accident occurs at these types of crossings, which is very unfortunate. This is becoming a huge issue, and I personally have see this type of behavior many times.
The easiest way to combat these kind of issues is teaching patience at a young age, especially to young off-roaders. Another way to fix this issue is with these underpasses. They work incredibly well and I think the Wisconsin Department of Transportation sees this, because we’re seeing more and more of these underpasses installed across the State.
I believe the latest addition of these underpasses that I have seen is in Black River Falls, Wisconsin, which is the most extensive underpass for atvs I have seen to date. This trail crossing passes under the 4-lane divided State Hwy 54 in the community on the east side of town. This opened up the community of Black River Falls to easier access from the east side, which was always not accessible because of Interstate 94 and State Hwy 54, Two very busy highways in Jackson County.
Safer underpasses / Conclusion…
These underpasses have the potential to save lives and decrease property damage, personally I feel so much safer using these types of crossings than the at-grade variety. The underpasses are even seeing safety improvements as we learn more about how they work, both drivers and D.O.T. These underpasses offer increased visibility with the addition of lights inside the underpass, such as the case in Black River Falls. The tunnel is quite long, so the additional lighting helps off-roaders see pedestrians further inside the tunnel, remember, these are multi-purpose trails in Wisconsin!
There is added expense in construction and maintenance of these crossings, but these costs are worth the lives saved and injuries / property damage reduced by keeping the different types of traffic separate.
I applaud the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, the Municipalities and ATV clubs across the State for their pushing for these types of crossings for off-roaders. They work spectacularly and We appreciate the effort put into these types of infrastructure improvements that benefit everyone!
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