US 8 Corridor Preservation

Tier I, EIS

Environmental documents

Public involvement

Contacts

Location | Overview | Status/phase

Project location

The US 8 Corridor Preservation Study is a 40 mile segment of 4-lane roadway, beginning at 200 Street, just west of WIS 35 north, and extending approximately 40 miles to the east to US 53, in Polk and Barron counties.

Map key - Thick orange line is the project overview/location, thin purple and green lines are project segments, and the blue tear drop with dot in center are the project boundaries.
View NW, US 8 Corridor Preservation Study in a larger map

Project overview

This study was initiated by legislative mandate to determine how to best meet the long-term transportation needs of this corridor.

When corridor study limits are this large, a tiered environmental process is preferred. The tiered process is used to eliminate repetitive discussions of the same issue and to focus on the actual issues at each level of environmental review. It is a means of accomplishing National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requirements in as efficient a manner as possible.

Tier I

Tier I selected a corridor for the 4-lane roadway to follow and an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for that corridor was completed in 2007.

Tier I focused on the broad issues such as general location, facility type, mode choice, area-wide air quality and land use implications of the major alternative.

Tier II

Each of the Tier II studies (see segments below) are a more detailed analysis of segments of the Tier I Corridor Study that address site-specific details of project impacts, costs and mitigation measures.

Deer Lake - 200th Street to 120th Street
Range- 120th Street to 15th Street
Turtle Lake/Almena - 15th Street to Hay River
Poskin/Barron - Hay River to US 53

Enough detail of a preferred design is completed to enable the official mapping of the future right of way.

Each Tier II segment takes approximately two years to complete with Tier II scheduled to be completed by 2015.

Tier III

Tier III is the final design and construction. In order to advance to this tier, the legislature needs to approve funding.

Status/phase

Study - Long term planning with no construction activity.

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US 8 roadway sign.