Highway S.O.S.

摘要

With the swollen Rock and Crawfish rivers lapping at the shoulders of westbound 1-94 between Milwaukee and Madison, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) sent out an S.O.H.-Save Our Highway-call to contractors. WisDOT Secretary Frank Busalacchi signed a $900,000 emergency contract on June 16 to build a connection to route traffic from the threatened westbound lanes to the unaffected eastbound lanes of 1-94. A 30-mile stretch of westbound 1-94 already had been closed since June 12 because of the flooding, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The resulting detour took travelers from the vital interstate south to Beloit, Wis., before heading north again to Madison-a 113-mile detour. The emergency contract with Hoffman Construction Co., Black River Falls, Wis., was to create a crossover from the westbound lanes to the eastbound lanes near Johnson Creek and then bring the westbound traffic back to its own lanes some 5 miles down the highway near Lake Mills. Hoffman handled earthmoving preparations for paving, and Payne & Dolan of Waukesha, Wis., laid the temporary asphalt pavement. The affected section now has one lane of its usual eastbound traffic and one lane of the rerouted westbound traffic.