Four lanes closer to reality By Warren Bluhm News-Chronicle Sometime this week, perhaps even before this newspaper hits the streets, they'll be opening the two southbound lanes of four-lane State 57 to traffic from Green Bay to Dyckesville. A short time after that, after they paint the permanent lines, they'll remove the barrels and allow traffic in both northbound lanes, and the first one-third of the Green Bay to Sturgeon Bay expressway will be complete. The plan is that five years from now, at the end of 2008, State 57 will be four lanes all the way from the intersection with Interstate 43 in Green Bay to the Bayview Bridge in Sturgeon Bay. I confess to mixed feelings. There's little doubt the project is needed. That 40-mile stretch has to be one of the busiest and most dangerous two-lane highways in the state of Wisconsin. Three people died this fall in two separate head-on crashes in the construction zone, as if to hammer home the need. But I also know how people drive on four-lane highways: Fast. And someone always wants to go faster. A driver going 68 mph will almost always get passed. And if the passer is going 70, as he creeps past the first car, he needs to keep an eye out for the person who wants to go 75 or 80. Often the speed jockey will power up to the tail of the slower passer, hanging on a carlength behind or closer to intimidate the forward car into speeding up or pulling over - the latter of course being impossible until he clears the first car. Need I point out that all three cars are breaking the 65 mph speed limit? Creeping along in a 55 mph zone with only occasional chances to pass slower cars can be aggravating, but at some point drivers tend to accept the inevitable, back off and enjoy the ride, even if it means going 50 for miles at a time. To me, that seems to be a reasonable transition to their destination - the slower pace of the Peninsula. In five years, the breakneck pace and rude speedsters will rule the road all the way up to the Bayview Bridge. And sometimes, people will die. One of the most horrific crashes of my 20 years in Northeast Wisconsin came when a carload of teenagers died on a foggy evening along U.S. 41 north of Green Bay. The driver pulling out from Norfield Road in Suamico couldn't see the car approaching. Drivers along any four-lane expressway need to be alert to traffic trying to go from zero to 65 at intersections. And we get a lot of fog in Door County. I'm not so foolish as to suggest we change our minds about the project. Those are indeed 40 miles of the busiest two lanes anywhere. And while the four-lane highway will carry its dangers and irritations, it will still be less dangerous than it is now. It's just a twinge of nostalgia for a quieter, slower time. And it's a twinge of recognition that people want to come to Door County because it is a quieter, slower place than they left behind. In accommodating people's desire to get to this quieter, slower place as fast as they can, we must be ever vigilant to preserve those attributes that make this their destination. We don't want them to be disappointed and not find the peace they seek - the last thing we need is a nice new expressway and no one interested in using it. Bluhm is editor of the Door County Advocate and former managing editor of The News-Chroncile. His column appears Tuesdays. Contact him via e-mail at [email protected] or call 920-743-3321