- Video shows the detour in the Village of Egg Harbor.
- Businesses ssay it has slowed down their usual crowds.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
Many say they're frustrated over a road project in the Village of Egg Harbor and they're taking to social media. I’m your Door County neighborhood reporter Katlyn Holt and I’m talking with some businesses throughout the village of Egg Harbor who say they have felt the effects of the state Highway 42 project.
"Of course, you're going to turn around because it doesn't even look like you can get through," said Fiorello.
Anne Fiorello is the general manager of the Village Cafe in the village of Egg Harbor.
From where she works, she’s seen the confusion these, "no access to Egg Harbor follow detour signs," have been creating. Fiorello has taken to social media herself, driving around to let her customers know about any of the updates on open routes.
"We're posting every day on Facebook to let people know what is the most current situation that we can possibly let them know of," said Fiorello.
She says this has made business much slower, during the already slow winter season.
Trisha Prahl is the manager at Casey’s BBQ and Smokehouse. She says she can relate to other business manager frustrations.
“I’m not sure what we're going to do,” said Prahl.
Prahl says they've cut the amount of days they're open every week in half, to just 3.
"We've always been open at least six days a week year-round and we just can't do it anymore,” said Prahl.
Megan Sawyer, the Village administrator for the Village of Egg Harbor says this project has a lot of moving parts.
"We are blessed here in the village to have multiple points of access outside of state highway 42," said Sawyer.
Sawyer says they're doing everything they can to let drivers know about the detours and that businesses are open.
"We're also working with private property owners businesses with in the detour route to install some additional signage beyond those signs," said Sawyer.
While the village's project is going on, Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s state highway construction on Wis-42 will start in April.
sawyer says since this project is on a state highway, most follow the Wisconsin D.OT.’s guidelines in terms of signage.
the Northeast region Communications Manager for Wis-D.O.T., Mark Kantola, says his crews met with Sawyer to discuss the "no access to Egg Harbor follow detour," signs at the beginning of the detour route. In a written statement, Kantola said:
"We discussed it is up to the village to determine if they would like to pull the signs and the potential impacts/risks associated with that action. Risks include additional traffic impacts to the work zone, more traffic, more conflicts, safety to contractors/motorists, lower production rates, and possibly an increase in flagging operations…"
I asked how long these projects are expected to take, and I'm told both are expected to be done by June but the village says it will resume any leftover work in the fall.
If you want construction and detour updates, we have a link right here.
