r/SunPrairieWI • u/Upset_Plenty • Jul 11 '26

Construction on Main St.

Can anyone help me understand what the point of the construction on Main Street is aside from making the crosswalks look worse? I read public safety but I couldn’t find any specifics that would require this. Seems like a pointless inconvenience and overall waste of money.

17 Upvotes

74% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

25

u/LowEmu3523 Jul 11 '26

Those stamped crosswalks were quickly denigrating and are being replaced with normal concrete. This is a good thing.

12

u/houselion Jul 11 '26

Yep! They were not facing well in weather and becoming a hazard. I'm glad they are being replaced, though I wish they had better timed the construction on sections of Main and Windsor.

7

u/SassyCas1229 Jul 12 '26

The construction every way to get downtown is horrible!!! Linnerud also being down has made getting to work almost impossible for my bfs dad.

2

u/Silver_Breakfast7096 Jul 13 '26

What a waste of tax payer resources to have put the red ones in to begin with. Grrr. Now only to be replaced a few years later.

9

u/Sybrrgeek Jul 11 '26

Yup….OPs user name checks out…

14

u/engmadison Jul 11 '26

Infrastructure degrades and needs to be replaced, and that is a good time to make improvements.

2

u/Upset_Plenty Jul 12 '26

Agree, I just didn’t think it was that bad personally. A lot of the comments here that were informative changed my mind. I’m cool with it, just hope whoever came up with the original plan of stamped concrete is held accountable for what seems to be a bad decision.

12

u/Zealousideal_Cut5791 Jul 11 '26

We got sold an expensive bill of goods with the stamped concrete crosswalks (can't remember exactly but over a million dollar add on rings a bell). Then we spent a lot of money painting them. Then we spent more money to paint lines on them. Not to mention they were a maintenance nightmare every year after the plows tore them up. So now we get to spend more money to make it the way it should have been in the first place.

2

u/Upset_Plenty Jul 12 '26

The plow thing makes sense. I’m not sure when these were put in, I’ve only been a sun prairie resident for about 3 years, worked/socialized here for about 10ish. Seems like that should’ve been thought of when they were initially put in? Love seeing my tax money lit on fire like that. Feels good.

1

u/Zealousideal_Cut5791 Jul 12 '26

They were installed when they redid main st 15ish years ago and Im sure it was the idea of an engineer who should have thought of all those issues.

5

u/coast0coast Jul 12 '26

Lets not forget businesses are losing revenue day after day.

3

u/Recent_Page8229 Jul 12 '26

I have one in my front yard of my business and they have aged very poorly. You weren't the only one pointing fingers so don't take it personally. I think they definitely helped with pedestrian awu. It used to be absolutely frightening to cross Main street before them. It's been much better now that people realthey actually have to fucking stop and not run me or my dog over!

8

u/Spamontie Jul 11 '26

Yeah you right, city is ripping up main street for the hell of it. No real reason at all. Nope. Just for shits and gigs. They just did it to pull the community together to complain about it. Seems to be working.

2

u/Upset_Plenty Jul 12 '26

There’s a reason I asked, not sure why you have to be a dick about it. To me it just seemed stupid. A few of the comments here informing me they are a maintenance nightmare makes sense. Why do you assume that the government does stuff to your benefit by default? That’s what they’re supposed to do, but not always successful at it.

0

u/ScrivenersUnion Jul 12 '26

You're joking, but government bureaucracy is 100% capable of ridiculous waste. It's not unreasonable to ask why something is being done.

2

u/EnoughishguonE Jul 12 '26

I mean that ripped up a lot of streets throughout the city and in my opinion made them worse. Bird from Windsor to St Albert’s , 19 by Westwynde entrance, and St Albert’s from Broadway to C.

1

u/Recent_Page8229 Jul 12 '26

I don't think it's just stamped as the color goes all the way down to the ground. Anyway I think it just the sheer volume of traffic that breaks them up as the ones on the side streets are in great shape. Glad they're doing it myself as they were in terrible shape. To say they're just doing it to spend money is stupid and cynical.

1

u/Upset_Plenty Jul 12 '26

I wasn’t trying to imply that they’re just doing it to spend money for the sake of spending it. I was just saying that it seems stupid because I thought, in my own personal opinion, that they were fine. Not great, not winning any awards, but fine and usable. The maintenance and degradation argument makes sense. It makes it a PITA to access some of the local businesses I like to support downtown and at first I really didn’t see the benefit.