Door County’s Most Dangerous Intersections

Gordon Road/County BB and Highway 42/57 are eighth on the list

A lot of attention has been given to the traffic-safety issues at the intersection of Gordon Road/County BB and Highway 42/57 in the Town of Sevastopol, where the Culver’s restaurant is located.

There’s good reason for that, said Mason Simmons, a traffic-safety engineer with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. Public complaints about the intersection are lodged regularly with the County of Door, City of Sturgeon Bay, Town of Sevastopol – and with Simmons himself.

“It does help,” he said. “There are thousands of intersections. At the same time, we need to follow state and federal guidelines. There’s only so much money. We’re making sure we’re prioritizing those funds appropriately.” 

It’s Simmons’ job to constantly monitor all roads in Wisconsin. One of the tools he uses to do that is the Safety Certification Worksheet Information sheet, which rates the safety levels of traffic trouble-spot areas. The sheet crunches numbers based on criteria such as the type of road, speed limit, crashes, injury rates, OWIs (operating while intoxicated) and other factors. 

The latest sheet, updated July 6 and shared with the Peninsula Pulse, shows 24 intersections in Door County that are considered trouble spots. They range from from 0.15 on the low end, to the most dangerous intersection at 5.82.

The top two – 5.82 for Highway 57 and Stone Road, and 5.06 for Highway 57 and County H, both in Southern Door – have been approved for federal safety dollars to fund improvements. Those two roads also rank in the top 5% of the most dangerous intersections in the state and are the only two intersections in Door County to make that statewide list.

Improvements for those two intersections are currently in the design phase and could cost between $1 million and $2 million per intersection. Those wouldn’t be scheduled for construction until 2025 or 2026, and a public-involvement phase would be part of the process.

On that Safety Certification Worksheet Information for Door County, the intersection at Gordon Road/County BB and Highway 42/57 rates .086 – or the eighth most dangerous within the county.

“When we ask for federal dollars, they ask, ‘Why do you need the money?’” Simmons said. “It’s number eight on the list. What are you doing for numbers one through seven?”

Still, Simmons said it’s not impossible to get funding for a fix at the intersection.

“I’m working on justifications for it,” he said.

In addition to the top two, the intersections that are rated higher, or more dangerous, than Gordon Road/County BB and Highway 42/57 are Highway 57 and South Cloverleaf Road (3.39), Highway 42 and County T (2.04), Highway 42 and County I (1.39), Highway 57 and County Q (1.12), and Highway 42/57 and County MM (0.86, the same as Gordon Road/County BB and Highway 42/57).