Lane Kimble

Baas engages with UW-Platteville students on transportation funding challenges

April 26, 2026 by Lane Kimble

PLATTEVILLE — References to John Cusack holding a boombox above his head in “Say Anything” and El Guapo in “Three Amigos” left some college students scratching their heads last week.

But when WTBA Executive Director Steve Baas mentioned Matt Damon “working the problem” to survive being left alone on Mars, that at least rang a bell.

Kids these days…

The important thing was getting young adults to wrap their minds around the $1 billion transportation funding shortfall we face in Wisconsin.

Baas did so during a presentation to UW-Platteville’s Construction Management students in the college’s Construction Seminar and Building Construction Materials classes.

Baas guided the 20-somethings through the basics on existing road and highway conditions, a funding shortfall exacerbated by a gas tax that hasn’t been adjusted for inflation since 2006, and possible solutions to the massive challenge our industry and state faces.

WTBA extends a sincere thanks to the UW-Platteville engineering staff for the invitation to reach some promising young minds!

“You can either accept that or you can get to work. That’s all it is. You just begin. You do the math, you solve one problem, then you solve the next one and then the next. And if you solve enough problems, you get to come home.” – Closing scene from “The Martian“, 2015

Coordination between contractor, WisDOT leads to safer Highway 59 work zone

April 24, 2026 by Lane Kimble

WHITEWATER — 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 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 WisDOT 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.”

WisDOT to add expedited proposal to May let due to ‘rapidly deteriorating pavement’ on Hwy 70

April 24, 2026 by Lane Kimble

Next month’s WisDOT bid letting will include an expedited let to speed up much-needed repairs in northern Wisconsin.

The addition is to fix rapidly deteriorating pavement along 17 ½ miles of Highway 70 in Sawyer and Price counties. WisDOT intends to add the proposal to the May 12 let by April 28.

Bidders must request to bid in accordance with WisDOT policy, Proposal Management Section Chief Rielly O’Donnell said.

You can view the project plans HERE and the special provisions document HERE.

Please note in Prosecution and Progress that contract processing, execution, ECIP, and start notice are being expedited as well.

Moment of Silence at Wisconsin work zone sends loud and clear message

April 24, 2026 by Lane Kimble

WEST BEND — 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 worksite 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 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, many coming within feet of their colleagues.

For those seven minutes Thursday morning 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.”