TOWN OF JEFFERSON — A petition filed in April by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation was adopted into an order by the Office of the Commissioner of Railroads in August. 

The WisDOT filed the petition on April 20 recommending that the railway crossing on Wis. 11 in the Town of Jefferson be resurfaced and the current train signals replaced with cantilevered flashing light signals, gates, one bell and a bungalow with constant warning time circuitry.

At the location of the crossing, which is just east of Juda and less than 200 feet from County KS, the speed limit is 55 mph. The minimum safe stopping distance for a traveler at that speed is 600 feet. Though the warning devices are visible from more than 600 feet in each direction, the corner sight distance in the northeast quadrant is only 78 feet. In the southeast quadrant, it is 153 feet. With a train traveling at 25 mph, the driver would need to see the train at 309 feet from the crossing.

There has only been one train-vehicle accident at the crossing since 1973, according to OCR documents.

“To promote public safety, it is necessary to install and maintain cantilevered 12-inch LED flashing lights with gates, constant warning time circuitry and an electric bell at the crossing of the tracks of the WSOR with STH 11 in the town of Jefferson, Green County, because of the exposure factor, highway speed and inadequate corner and clearing sigh distances,” the document said.

The petition to increase safety measures at the railroad crossing on Wis. 11 in the Town of Jefferson came following a routine check of the crossings which occurs whenever a highway is going to be under construction. The WisDOT will resurface Wis. 11 in Green County from Jefferson to Brodhead starting in November. The checks can allow for multiple projects to happen simultaneously rather than shutting down the highway several times for separate projects.

Commission Secretary Program Manager Kris Sommers said that the general lifespan of warning devices is 30 years. The current signals were installed in the early 1990s. 

“They’ve reached their life cycle,” Sommers said.

The location of the crossing sees an average daily traffic of 7,400 vehicles per day according to 2016 data. Rail traffic at the crossing consists of two nighttime trains per day, according to the FRA database.

An Office of the Commissioner of Railroads investigator inspected the crossing in 2017 and recommended that the warning devices be upgraded, but no hearing was held, according to the OCR final decision statement released Aug. 10.

The project is on schedule to be completed by July 2021.