Washington County staff to shift transportation plans from 2050 to 2060, begin local batch work in August

Washington County highway staff announced July 17 that the county will extend its transportation planning horizon from 2050 to 2060 and begin a series of local plan updates this fall and a county-level plan shortly after. The change matters because staff plan to produce multiple town plans in batches, using GIS crash-data downloads and intersection safety analysis. Josh (county highway staff) told the committee he expects GIS staff to have capacity in August to “open that whole can of worms” and run the initial data analysis so plans for towns can be produced in groups rather than piecemeal. County highway staff said the Town of Jackson and Town of Addison are the next local plans expected, followed by several county-level planning steps later this year. Scott (county staff) noted that municipalities already using the online database can extend their own data to 2060 if they choose, and that the city of West Bend and the Village of Kewaskum completed 2050 plans and will have a few years before they must extend to 2060. Josh said Farmington’s plan and the city of Hartford work are already being prepared to a 2060 horizon. Committee members asked how the change affects municipalities that already completed 2050 plans; staff said towns have access to the plan database and can extend the horizon themselves or request an update when convenient. Staff also said the county’s master spreadsheet that feeds the plan work has been updated and that construction and repaving schedules are being coordinated with the new planning timeline. No formal action was taken; the item was an informational report and planning update. The committee will continue to coordinate with GIS and the county’s mapping analyst (Mike Vander Sanden) as the data phase begins in August and as staff prepare batch outputs for multiple towns.