Electrical work to result in trail closures

The Ozaukee Interurban Trail will be closed intermittently for utility work beginning this month by We Energies and American Transmission Co.

Potential closures will occur where the trail intersects with Highway A, Dixie Road and East Lake Drive, according to an Interurban Trail Facebook post.

Work on the trail is expected to last through June as We Energies plans to install a new buried electric line along the trail.

“Signage and barricades will be placed at all major entrance points during closures,” the post says.

The electrical work is related to construction of the Vantage Data Center Lighthouse Campus on Port Washington’s north side.

At one time, it was feared the Ozaukee Interurban Trail would have to be rerouted  to accommodate the data center campus.

But those fears were unfounded even as Ozaukee County prepares to launch the repaving of the trail from Port Washington to Belgium.

However, the cost to repave the 13 miles of trail from Port to Belgium will basically double because of delays caused by the data center and the installation of underground and above ground cables and a We  Energies substation.

But a $710,000 grant from the state Department of Administration that was applied for in November is expected to help cover those costs.

“This utility work will include overhead and underground utility line construction completed with heavy equipment along and across several portions of (the trail),” Ozaukee County Director of Planning and Parks Andrew Struck wrote in a memo to the committee.

The county also will encounter “significant coordination” with Union Pacific railroad to reroute a portion of the trail in Belgium where the railroad says the trail encroaches on its right of way south of Highway D and adjacent to the We Energies substation north of Highway D.

The county has since worked with the Village of Belgium and the Belgium Fire Department to shift the trail east to the south side of Highway D, follow Highway D and Elm Street as an on-road signed and painted segment, and then reconnect to the existing trail north of the We Energies substation.

The grant also will pay for new signage along the trail.

Still to be worked out is a requirement by the railroad that flaggers be stationed, at county expense, along the trail where it closely parallels the tracks.

The bike trail also is currently closed while water and sewer lines are being extended north across Highway LL.

The trail there could be reopened by March.