Chippewa County board adopts safety action plan targeting 55% cut in serious crashes by 2040

The Chippewa County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on March 10 to adopt Resolution 8-26, the Chippewa County safety action plan, formally committing the county to a “vision zero” aim and an interim objective to reduce traffic deaths and serious injuries by 55% by 2040.

Project manager Freddie Anderson of the county highway department introduced the plan and turned the presentation over to Nicole Bitzen, lead consultant with SRF Consulting. Bitzen said the plan was prepared with funding from a federal SS4A (Safe Streets and Roads for All) grant and follows a Federal Highway Administration safe-systems framework. “We received a federal grant,” Bitzen said, describing planning, demonstration and implementation grant opportunities that remain as the SS4A program completes its final year of funding.

The plan analyzes county crash history, community input and a proactive systemic risk analysis. Bitzen told the board that between 2019 and 2023 Chippewa County recorded roughly 178 severe crashes and just over 6,000 total crashes; vulnerable roadway users (pedestrians and bicyclists) account for a disproportionate share of severe outcomes. The consultants used a high-injury network and gathered about 300 public comments via site events and an online map to identify priority locations and modes.

The report outlines a toolkit of infrastructure and non-infrastructure countermeasures (shoulder rumbles, enhanced edge lines, signage, targeted intersection and curve work, education and policy changes) and provides cost and effectiveness estimates for common interventions. Consultants described roughly 500 prioritized projects across segments, curves and intersections and presented a top-level cost estimate of about $22,000,000 for the prioritized list. Consultants and county staff estimated a county-level share (if all projects were built at once) in the low millions; Anderson noted the typical grant match structure and said projects would be advanced as funding becomes available.

Anderson highlighted a locally identified project — a potential pedestrian underpass at the Chippewa Valley Festival Grounds on County Highway S — as an example of a county-right-of-way project that may benefit from public–private partnership funding.

Supervisors asked for additional clarity on metrics and prioritization. Supervisor Schubert said that while the goals are ambitious, he wanted metrics showing return on investment and cautioned against overregulation; consultants responded that the plan is both a prioritization tool for routine county work and a foundation to pursue external funding. Supervisor Gutman identified a corridor hotspot along Highway 27 and urged coordination with state highway authorities for those segments. Board members were told the SS4A national program totaled about $5 billion over five years and that additional federal opportunities could fund planning, demonstration projects or construction.

With those clarifications, the board approved the resolution unanimously. County staff said the final, signed plan will be submitted to Federal Highways to complete the SS4A planning deliverable and to position Chippewa County for implementation grants and demonstration project funding.