Walbec Group

There isn’t a lot of space to work underneath the Highway 12 bridge in Whitewater. Matt Gregg looked at it, looked at his project plans, and knew there was an issue. “When we’re swinging an excavator underneath here and loading a truck, with our height clearance and our width restrictions it just made it too treacherous to try to get traffic through here,” Gregg said. Gregg is Payne+Dolan’s (Walbec Group) project manager on the Highway 59 repaving job, which begins near the city limits, runs underneath the bridge and continues for several miles south toward Janesville. Traffic control plans called for allowing vehicles to pass through the work zone under the overpass while crews worked to replace curb and gutter, drain tile, and do slope paving. Gregg talked with Wisconsin Department of Transportation Project Leader Matt Smith and started bouncing ideas off each other. “It’s one of those things we work together on,” Smith said, explaining he’s known Gregg for more than a decade. “Both Matt and I are safety-oriented. I have concerns for the workers’ safety and, at the same time, for the traveling public’s safety.” The two came up with a good solution: fully close Highway 59 at the bridge but only while crews are actually working underneath. Instead of a weeks-long closure, Payne+Dolan has been able to get their work done safely while only closing the road three or four times for short stretches. “It’s been unbelievable,” Gregg said, crediting his long relationship with Smith as a key reason for their positive coordination. “The guys get to focus on each other, which they should be doing in a work zone. Not worrying if a car’s trying to sneak around them or if a car’s behind them… That partnership is what I appreciate about working with Matt and his staff.” The Highway 59 project as a whole will take until late-June, but Thursday marked the final time crews will need to close the highway. “It’s the best of both worlds here,” Smith said. “When a job gets done safely, on time, correctly and everything else, that’s a win for everybody.”

An asphalt paver and nearby roller stood motionless on a job site Thursday morning.  In front, 18 crew members all stood silent as well, staring east at the rising sun. For seven minutes at 7 a.m., all work stopped on Northeast Asphalt’s work site along Highway 144 near West Bend.  One minute for each of the seven lives lost in Wisconsin’s work zone crashes last year. “The seven deaths, that’s seven families that are ruined forever.  They’re going to be missing somebody forever,” NEA (Walbec Group) Project Manager Josh Treml told WTBA after work resumed. The pause marked the first time WTBA and one of its members coordinated to participate in National Work Zone Awareness Week’s Moment of Silence.  That portion of the week’s programming started in 2022 to honor lives lost. Forecasted rain for Friday scratched initial plans to match Wisconsin’s moment with ones across the country, but the NEA team didn’t mind the last-minute change. “Anything that brings light to work zone safety and work zone awareness, we’re absolutely for it,” Treml said.  “Our guys that work out here, they see the dangers every day.” Highway 144 isn’t NEA’s biggest or busiest project.  The two-lane highway is closed to through traffic, but flaggers at both ends still must allow a regular flow of local cars and trucks passing close by their teammates. For those seven minutes cars periodically passed behind the crew standing in a solitary line, some drivers glancing over in wonder.  It was a silent message sent loud and clear. “We can do everything we can but, at the end of the day, the traveling public needs to really pay attention in work zones and take the responsibility as well to keep everyone safe out there,” Treml said.  “It just means a lot to all of us.”

It was a bright and bold statement last night: slow down, save lives. WTBA coordinated with Light the Hoan to turn one of the city's most recognizable landmarks construction barrel-orange Tuesday evening in honor of National Work Zone Awareness Week. “Our mission really is to bring people together and use our lights as a platform for special moments that matter, to create awareness. Tonight, we’re proud to shine a light on safety," Light the Hoan Executive Director Erika Smith said during a news conference previewing the event. Cars lined up near the Summerfest Grounds and across the Milwaukee River near a boat launch throughout the early evening as people gathered to take in the view; some for a few moments, others for more than an hour. WTBA hopes those people--and anyone who saw the bright lights reflecting off the water Tuesday night--spent a little time reflecting on the people who put their lives on the lines daily, making our roads and bridges better for everyone. "This is a very visible and tangible reminder that behind every orange cone, behind every flag, behind every flashing light in a work zone is a person who wants to get home to their family," WTBA Exec. Director Steve Baas said. "It's a father, it's a mother, it's a son, it's a daughter."