How did the turtle move a road? By being rare

By Janine Anderson

Sunday, January 28, 2007 2:11 AM CST

Journal Times

TOWN OF BURLINGTON - Trying to avoid a threatened species of turtle will put people at risk, according to a town official who says rerouting Yahnke Road will cause accidents.

"The endangered species is going to become people who pull off Yahnke Road into that traffic," said Jack Daams, building inspector for the Town of Burlington. "It'll be an ugly situation. There will be somebody killed there not long after it opens."

The Blanding's turtle, a threatened species, inhabits wetlands south of the bypass directly in the path of what was supposed to be the realigned Yahnke Road. Bohner's Lake residents were counting on the realigned Yahnke Road to get into the city � for groceries, shopping, doctor's appointments and to the hospital � without an enormous detour.

The turtle discovery thwarts that plan, and the current proposal is to build a spur connecting Yahnke Road to the south side of the bypass. Traffic on Yahnke Road will stop before turning onto the bypass.

Bypass-related construction and closures on the south side of Burlington will begin in 2008. That portion of the bypass is scheduled to open to traffic in late 2010 or early 2011.

Once P is closed, without Yahnke Road to connect it with Highway 83, the typical 5- to 10-minute trip from Bohners Lake to Memorial Hospital of Burlington will take closer to 20 minutes, using Fish Hatchery and Karcher roads.

Even longer is the official detour - the marked path for out-of-town drivers and large trucks - which will swing all the way down to Highway 50, about two miles into Kenosha County.

Judy Stevenson lives and works off Highway P, and is worried and upset over the new plan.

"They promised Yahnke Road would stay open," she said. "Now they're not planning on that. Instead of two miles we'll have to go around. It's something about endangered species turtles. That's what I heard from the building inspector. It's people hollering about an endangered species turtle."

Andy Smieja, project manager for the Burlington Bypass, said the turtle has left them with no other option.

"The Town of Burlington has asked us, instead of us putting in the spur, can it be routed south of the bypass and connect with 83?" Smieja said. "Initially we said yes, and we were going to change the alternative that way. But the DNR came back and told us no because south and west of the bypass there are Blanding's turtle habitats. Because there is a viable alternative, the spur, they do not want us going through the habitat for the turtle. That's why we reverted back."

The issue won't affect drivers at all until 2008, when Highway 83 is reconstructed. Smieja said the Yahnke Road work would start then as well. Relatively few people live on Highway 83 south of Burlington. Highway P, which leads to Bohner's Lake, will affect many more people when it closes in 2009.

The detour is an inconvenience, but that's not what worries Stevenson the most. It's the emergency vehicles that have her concerned.

"I just don't want to see anybody die over all this garbage," she said. "Especially now with the assisted living home (at the corner of Highway P and Yahnke Road). If they've got P shut off they need to have another way.

"It takes me just 2 minutes to get to the hospital. That's quite a bit of difference. Especially if somebody's dying, we've got that senior citizens' home out here now. Don't tell me there's not going to be anybody who needs it."

Smieja said they realize the detours will cause a problem for emergency vehicles, and said they will find some way to accommodate them.

"We're still working on those details," he said. "The problem is, west of 83 the bypass is not scheduled to open before 2010. We have to figure out in our staging how to accommodate that. Do we open it to the Yahnke Road spur or continue to have an interim connection, just a gap in the bypass, and let people from Yahnke Road be routed through a subdivision (north of the bypass)?"

The DOT doesn't want to leave Yahnke as a dead end for a long period of time, he said, nor do they want to leave emergency vehicles with no direct path to Bohners Lake or the hospital. As they look at the plans, Smieja said they may consider interim connections or allowing emergency vehicles to use graded areas of the bypass before the roadway is open.

"Our main concern is emergency services," he said. "Yes, we'd like to provide a short detour, but there might not be a time when we can always do that."

Stevenson doesn't buy the Department of Transportation's promises that they will keep things open for emergency vehicles.

"I work for an excavator," she said. "When they're involved in making a road, they're not going to be able to take cars across it.

"They promised Yahnke Road would stay open and it's not now. That's very uncomfortable, to know somebody could die, or if they're having a baby and there's trouble, or trouble breathing. There's quite a few calls out here."

Daams isn't impressed with the new plan.

"I have been told that, in fact, a turtle has been located in the area of the project," Daams said. "I've announced my intention to take the battle up when we get to that point in the project. I have a plan here that shows Yahnke Road exiting onto 83. That's from the early part of the project. The DNR subsequently says we know it's a habitat and I'll look for some turtles. Nobody's ever held a turtle up to me and said, 'Jack, this here's a Blanding's turtle.' "

Daams said without seeing evidence of the turtles it's hard for him to accept the new plan.

"The death rate for Blanding's turtles on Yahnke Road is very low," he said. "I keep my eye out for the little buggers. I'd certainly like to meet one up close and personal. I haven't seen one squashed along the way."

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