MONROE - The new Badger State Trail bridge over 8th Street in Monroe is nearly 9 feet high, but that is not good enough, say the Stateline Trailblazers.
Darren Roth, the trail boss, said the bridge will not accommodate the utility vehicle used to pull the trail groomer: The Tucker Terra 2000 Sno-Cat is 9 feet high.
But the problem is more than just 2 or 3 inches.
"You have to add a foot or foot and a half of snow under that," Roth said.
City Engineering Supervisor Al Gerber said Thursday he was not aware of the problem.
But the Department of Natural Resources county manager, Steve Johnston, alerted the DNR, and Dana White-Quam, the southwest district trail coordinator, met with him Sept. 12 at the bridge site to examine the problem.
"Unfortunately, it's after the fact," said White-Quam, who does not remember height being discussed in the shop plans. "We're looking at options to see if it's possible to do something or reroute around the bridge. But we're not giving up."
White-Quam said, without grooming, the snowy trail will become rutted and rough.
The bridge was installed this summer, replacing an old train bridge, to make room for widening the street, a state Department of Transportation project. A DNR grant helped pay for half of the new bridge.
The city hired an engineering design firm for the 8th and 9th Street project, and all plans had to meet DOT standards. Both state departments reviewed and approved the engineering designs, plans and shop drawings, Gerber said.
The plan was to install a box tress structure with wooden floors and sided by chain link fencing. The bridge was to be 12 feet high and 12 feet wide. But Gerber said those figures may have been outside dimensions. Overhead beams and the flooring could easily reduce the internal dimension by 3 feet, he said.
The Stateline Trailblazers were contacted to verify the bridge could accommodate the weight and width of the grooming equipment. The bridge's 11.5-foot wide clearance can easily handle the 8.5-foot wide Tucker and groomer.
"Nobody said anything about height," Roth said, "and there was no top on the old bridge."
Roth said he was sent sideview drawings of the new bridge and "six pages of engineering jargon," but no endview that would have alerted him to the overhead cross beams.
Roth also pointed out that a Wisconsin DOT guide for designing bike trails and paths specifically notes, "The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources uses a 12-ft (3.6 m) vertical clearance on state trails to accommodate maintenance and snow grooming equipment."
But the bridge's height of less than 9 feet also doesn't meet the guide's clearance standards for emergency vehicles.
The guide, The Wisconsin Bicycle Facility Design Manual, published in 2004 and updated in 2006 and 2009 by the DOT's Division of Transportation Investment Management's Bureau of Planning, says, "The vertical clearance to obstructions (fig. 4-15) should be 10 ft (3 m) for bicyclists' comfort and to allow access for maintenance and emergency vehicles." Figure 4-15 reiterates the information with a drawing and the cutline, "Vertical clearance requirements are based, in part, on the need for emergency vehicle access."
In Monroe, however, the trail is accessible from either side of the bridge for fire or emergency medical services.
City fire inspector, Deputy Chief Lane Heins, said the fire department would not take any fire trucks across the bridge, although the Durango used as a command vehicles could cross the bridge.The guide says 8 ft. (2.5 m) may be used "in special cases," but does not spell out specific examples. The minimal eight feet "allows bicyclists to go under without hitting their heads."
The impassible bridge means Roth will have to turn around before reaching the Monroe bridge and come in from the other direction, leaving as much as a mile of ungroomed trail. He wants signs installed telling snowmobilers that grooming picks up again in the trail ahead.
The Tucker is 18 feet long, runs on four tracks and pulls a groomer about 20 feet long. It needs a lot of room to turn around, Roth said.
"It was meant to get on a trail and go forward," he said. "Backing up is not pleasurable either."
Roth said the Trailblazers run into a similar problem of a bridge-too-small near Brodhead.
Hired by the DNR to groom the trails, Stateline Trailblazers grooms 135 miles of Badger State, Sugar River and the Cheese or Tri-County, trails three or four times a week. The Tucker travels at about 7 miles an hour.
Darren Roth, the trail boss, said the bridge will not accommodate the utility vehicle used to pull the trail groomer: The Tucker Terra 2000 Sno-Cat is 9 feet high.
But the problem is more than just 2 or 3 inches.
"You have to add a foot or foot and a half of snow under that," Roth said.
City Engineering Supervisor Al Gerber said Thursday he was not aware of the problem.
But the Department of Natural Resources county manager, Steve Johnston, alerted the DNR, and Dana White-Quam, the southwest district trail coordinator, met with him Sept. 12 at the bridge site to examine the problem.
"Unfortunately, it's after the fact," said White-Quam, who does not remember height being discussed in the shop plans. "We're looking at options to see if it's possible to do something or reroute around the bridge. But we're not giving up."
White-Quam said, without grooming, the snowy trail will become rutted and rough.
The bridge was installed this summer, replacing an old train bridge, to make room for widening the street, a state Department of Transportation project. A DNR grant helped pay for half of the new bridge.
The city hired an engineering design firm for the 8th and 9th Street project, and all plans had to meet DOT standards. Both state departments reviewed and approved the engineering designs, plans and shop drawings, Gerber said.
The plan was to install a box tress structure with wooden floors and sided by chain link fencing. The bridge was to be 12 feet high and 12 feet wide. But Gerber said those figures may have been outside dimensions. Overhead beams and the flooring could easily reduce the internal dimension by 3 feet, he said.
The Stateline Trailblazers were contacted to verify the bridge could accommodate the weight and width of the grooming equipment. The bridge's 11.5-foot wide clearance can easily handle the 8.5-foot wide Tucker and groomer.
"Nobody said anything about height," Roth said, "and there was no top on the old bridge."
Roth said he was sent sideview drawings of the new bridge and "six pages of engineering jargon," but no endview that would have alerted him to the overhead cross beams.
Roth also pointed out that a Wisconsin DOT guide for designing bike trails and paths specifically notes, "The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources uses a 12-ft (3.6 m) vertical clearance on state trails to accommodate maintenance and snow grooming equipment."
But the bridge's height of less than 9 feet also doesn't meet the guide's clearance standards for emergency vehicles.
The guide, The Wisconsin Bicycle Facility Design Manual, published in 2004 and updated in 2006 and 2009 by the DOT's Division of Transportation Investment Management's Bureau of Planning, says, "The vertical clearance to obstructions (fig. 4-15) should be 10 ft (3 m) for bicyclists' comfort and to allow access for maintenance and emergency vehicles." Figure 4-15 reiterates the information with a drawing and the cutline, "Vertical clearance requirements are based, in part, on the need for emergency vehicle access."
In Monroe, however, the trail is accessible from either side of the bridge for fire or emergency medical services.
City fire inspector, Deputy Chief Lane Heins, said the fire department would not take any fire trucks across the bridge, although the Durango used as a command vehicles could cross the bridge.The guide says 8 ft. (2.5 m) may be used "in special cases," but does not spell out specific examples. The minimal eight feet "allows bicyclists to go under without hitting their heads."
The impassible bridge means Roth will have to turn around before reaching the Monroe bridge and come in from the other direction, leaving as much as a mile of ungroomed trail. He wants signs installed telling snowmobilers that grooming picks up again in the trail ahead.
The Tucker is 18 feet long, runs on four tracks and pulls a groomer about 20 feet long. It needs a lot of room to turn around, Roth said.
"It was meant to get on a trail and go forward," he said. "Backing up is not pleasurable either."
Roth said the Trailblazers run into a similar problem of a bridge-too-small near Brodhead.
Hired by the DNR to groom the trails, Stateline Trailblazers grooms 135 miles of Badger State, Sugar River and the Cheese or Tri-County, trails three or four times a week. The Tucker travels at about 7 miles an hour.