MADISON, Wis. -- It's still a long way from being built, but after more than a decade of study, a new pathway to ease traffic north of Madison has been selected.

A special countywide committee on Wednesday approved a corridor for the North Mendota Parkway.

For some, getting this road north of the lake has been a dream for as long as 15 years. Now, after tens of thousands of dollars in studies and reams of maps, the North Mendota Parkway Implementation Oversight committee has voted on a plan.

The committee wants the parkway to start on the East Side, where roughly County Highway M meets County Highway K in the Town of Westport. The new road would then follow the top of the Dorn Creek watershed west, going north of Middleton before either traveling north or south of County Highway K, paralleling it before connecting with Highway 12.

Most committee members said that they like the final product. Town of Westport Supervisor Terry Enge, who was a member of the committee, said that he thinks this plan moves the process forward.

"I'm happy that we've now moved at least to map this after nine years and we were kind of going nowhere, but we've always -- the Town of Westport -- been consistently offering this option and then with these modifications with less impact to residences and businesses ... feel we have a pretty nice plan in place."

Enge said the final proposal to ease traffic north of Lake Mendota, especially along Highway M in future years, was modified to save homes and businesses. As it stands now, Enge said only one home around M and K would be impacted, as well as two businesses farther down.

However, officials with the Town of Springfield have concerns about the route's impact on some big farms there. The committee voted to widen the corridor on the west end, so Town Chair Don Hoffman voted against it.

"Because the corridor was expanded a quarter mile north and our position has always been is try to keep the highway south as far as possible, so you could to keep from splitting the township and the farms," Hoffman said.

He said the committee ran out of money so it decided to just vote on a plan instead of waiting for state studies on where Highway 12 would hook into the parkway and how that might impact local roads.

Hoffman said he's worried about operational farms being cut in half by the parkway. The parkway would be a brand new, 45-mph road with perhaps an environmental corridor and bike paths along side it.

Pending some final local approval, the parkway path pick will be sent to the state Department of Transportation, where it will look at interchange options for connecting it to Highway 12.