Highway department to address 'most dangerous intersection' in Brown County beginning the week of Feb. 6
GREEN BAY - Brown County Highway Commissioner Paul Fontecchio didn't have to look far to find someone suffering from the impacts of an automobile crash near the West Mason Street-Packerland Drive intersection.
A woman who works with him in the Brown County Highway Department office is recovering from a crash this past year at the intersection Fontecchio calls "the county's worst" in terms of crash numbers. He said she had to miss about a month of work because of the crash.
Beginning the week of Feb. 6, the county plans to install concrete barrier walls that will restrict traffic moving into and out of the frontage road that runs parallel to Mason Street. They will This is being done in preparation for more permanent work planned this summer.
The walls will restrict drivers using the frontage road at Hardees and the south driveway at the Shell station, both on the south side of West Mason, to right turns only.
Fontecchio's department notified businesses in the affected area late last week about the changes.
Two more crashes in January injured drivers, passengers or both, county records show. Two or three injury crashes per month are not uncommon, Fontecchio said.
"There are too many conflicts for drivers to work through, too many places that require decisions," Fontecchio said. "We have to simplify that."
In a news release Monday, the county balled it "the most dangerous intersection in the county."
Safety of the public, safe access to businesses, minimal construction disruption and improved pedestrian access within the construction area are the public works department's goals for the project. Public safety is goal No. 1, Fontecchio said, when additional work begins in April; plans include the creation of a ramp allowing traffic from West Mason Street to connect directly to East and West Campus drives on the campus at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College.
County Board Member Ray Suennen of Howard and other members of the county's Planning, Development and Transportation Committee endorsed the idea at a meeting last week.
Also planned for the intersection: a roundabout projected for Packerland and Trojan Drive, designed to make it safer for vehicles leaving Green Bay Southwest High School. Because land held in federal trust must be used, the county can't schedule the work in 2023, but hopes to get approval from the Oneida Nation to do the work in 2024 or '25.
Email Doug Schneider at DSchneid@Gannett.com, call him at (920) 265-2070 and follow him on Twitter at PGDougSchneider
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Dangerous Brown Co. intersection in to get work to affect traffic flow
