Madeline Zukowski

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Editor's note: Story has been updated with comments from the leader of 1,000 Friends of Wisconsin.

A federal judge has denied a motion to reinstate the State 23 expansion project between Fond du Lac and Plymouth.

The project was put on hold more than one year ago when a Madison-based environmental group filed a lawsuit against the United States Department of Transportation. Judge Lynn Adelman stopped the project until further analysis was done on future traffic projections on the route.

Prior to the lawsuit, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Federal Highway Administration were moving forward to expand the 19-mile stretch from two to four lanes.

For decades, Wisconsin leaders have pushed to expand the route, arguing that the move would save lives and, by accommodating more traffic, promote economic development in the region. But funding and policy issues have thwarted the efforts.

In its justification for the expansion, the DOT claimed that the average daily traffic on the highway is already reaching levels where four-lane expansion should be considered. When compared to other expansion options such as passing lanes, only the four-lane expansion meets all capacity needs for the projected traffic increases.

But 1,000 Friends of Wisconsin didn't agree. In its briefs for its lawsuit, the group claimed that the projections are inflated because of outdated assumptions about population growth and how much people are driving cars.

Steve Hiniker, executive director of 1,000 Friends of Wisconsin, said the group is concerned about safety, but believes that widening the roads will only increase speeding.

"Widening is not the same as safety," he said. "It is possible and desirable to do safety upgrades on the road without widening it."

Another concern of the group is the lack of funding that is involved in making safety improvements on not only State 23, but also other roads. Hiniker said lawmakers should go into special session to make funds available for safety improvements as soon as possible.

Adelman on Friday rejected the state's new explanations of how the agencies arrived at the traffic forecasts that appear in the environmental impact statement for the project.

Sen. Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg), who along with other state leaders wrote an editorial on the State 23 project for the USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin, said in a statement Monday that Adelman's decision is unacceptable.

"Judge Adelman's ruling is an attack on the safety of citizens who travel Highway 23, the will of the electorate who overwhelmingly support the project, the taxpayers who face increasing costs with continued delays, and the authority of the Legislature," LeMahieu said.

Rep. Jeremy Thiesfeldt (R- Fond du Lac), who had not had a chance to review the judge's decision yet, said Monday he supported expansion.

"We're going to continue to have the public put in danger by the volume of the traffic that exists on that stretch of highway," he said.

Expansion delays leave State 23 in danger zone

Some lawmakers, environmentalists and landowners say the number of accidents on State 23 aren’t any higher than many other two-lane routes in Wisconsin. A review of crash data provided by the DOT appears to bolster that argument.

Yet another study commissioned by the DOT found that on 12 Wisconsin highways that were expanded from two to four lanes, crashes were reduced, according to Andrea Bill, a research program manager for the Transportation Operations and Safety Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In 2015, three people died in crashes on the 19-mile stretch between Fond du Lac and Plymouth, according to the DOT. Between 2004 and 2014, there were 172 vehicle crashes with injuries and four people died.

Related: State 23: one day, two crashes, one death.

On average, an accident happens every 12 days on the route, the DOT says.

This year, there has been one fatality on the stretch.

Reach Madeline Zukowski at 920-907-7968 or mzukowski@gannett.com; on Twitter: @madszuko.