Lane Kimble

Engineering Excellence awards showcase members’ wide range of skills, specialties

March 3, 2026 by Lane Kimble

A downtown Milwaukee street is safer, a Sheboygan County dam better protects and enhances a nearby marsh, and UW Badgers have a better place to train at the Kohl Center thanks to WTBA-member engineering firms’ award-winning work.

The American Council of Engineering Companies of Wisconsin announced its 2026 Engineering Excellence Awards this week.

Of the 10 “Best of State” winners, seven are WTBA members who worked on six projects. “Best of State” are entires that represent the highest degree of innovation, client satisfaction, and industry contributions, ACEC says. They included AECOM, HNTB, KL Engineering, Kapur & Associates R.H. Batterman, and raSmith.

Meanwhile, another 11 WTBA firms were named as “State Finalist Award Winners” on 14 different projects. Those include Ayers, Baxter & Woodman, Benesch, Civiltech Engineering, CORRE Inc., EXP, GRAEF, Jewell Associates, MSA Professional Services, Mead & Hunt, and SEH.

Winning projects included the huge I-43 reconstruction work in southeast Wisconsin (which had a special ribbon cutting in 2025), a county highway causeway in central Wisconsin, a roundabout and state highway in Vernon County, and many others.

ACEC honored recipients Tuesday night during its Dinner & Design Awards at the Transportation Improvement Conference in Wisconsin Dells.

Congratulations to all winners for their exceptional work!

‘Truly an honor’: Hahn elected new WTBA Board President

February 26, 2026 by Lane Kimble

RIO MAR, Puerto Rico — Standing alone on a stage in front of 200 people Wednesday night, Mike Hahn recognized he got there by standing on the shoulders of giants.

Hahn listed names like Michels, Gannon, Hanson and Sikma as he reflected on his early days of joining WTBA.

“These guys are titans of the industry and here’s this young guy that’s just new to the game,” Hahn said. “Just to sit and listen to what those guys talked about in the same room when the next day, the next week they’re going to go compete against each other, I couldn’t comprehend how that relationship worked at the time.”

Safe to say Hahn has figured it out. Wednesday, he became the newest WTBA Board President.

“I want to thank those of you in the room for putting your trust in me for this next year to lead the organization,” Hahn said. “It’s truly an honor.”

Hahn, who is Lunda Construction Vice President of Wisconsin Operations, has been around the association and industry for many years. He started in WisDOT’s Bureau of Structures, then worked for a consulting firm on the Marquette Interchange before joining Lunda.

Hahn also served previously as the WTBA of Tomorrow chairman and went through ARTBA’s young leadership program – all steps that helped him grasp a key piece of understanding.

“This whole industry is bigger than anyone in this room and anything that’s happening out there. You need everyone, not just one,” Hahn said.

The new president has some significant goals for his one-year term.

He’s pushing for long-term funding solutions to close a $1.3 billion shortfall in Wisconsin’s next budget, craft a fair policy on potholing, continue to grow WTBA membership numbers, put a new permanent Design-Build program to good use, and improve field relationships with WisDOT.

Hahn says he’ll depend on professional connections to accomplish as much of that as possible, but knows he also has his most important personal relationship–his wife Jill–to stand beside through the challenges and celebrations that await.

“She gave everything in her life for me and I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Hahn said, choking back tears. “Thank you.”

WTBA Scholarship Auction raises $219,625, sailing past Zignego’s goal

February 24, 2026 by Lane Kimble

The past few WTBA/TEF Scholarship Auctions hit some incredibly high, record-setting figures, surpassing $275,000 each.

Dan Zignego purposely set his goal a little lower this year, landing on $200,000.

“There’s a psychological sweet spot of success,” Zignego explained. “Between 60 and 70 percent success rate is a good place to set goals because under that, your brain knows you’re not trying hard enough, over that your brain gets a little disheartened because you don’t achieve success enough.”

Monday night at the Annual Convention, WTBA members made sure Zignego felt that sweet sense of success.

The auction raised $219,625 through 94 items split between an online silent auction and the live event.

Big-ticket items included equipment rentals, concert tickets, jewelry, and sports packages.

Money raised benefits the annual WTBA of Tomorrow Scholarship program along with the Transportation Education Fund. TEF informs the public and lawmakers about the importance of the transportation industry and its needs through a variety of informational and educational means year-round.

A live-updating status bar on one screen at the auction hovered around the midway mark with a quarter of the items left to go. Any anxiety over hitting the goal quickly vanished quickly, with the generous crowd pushing the bar to full just a few items later.

“That was awesome. It was a fun night,” Zignego said.

Half-filled glasses and romcom references: How WTBA’s Baas drove home importance of transportation funding at Concrete conference

February 14, 2026 by Lane Kimble

PEWAUKEE — Are you a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty kind of person?

To Steve Baas, they’re not mutually exclusive.

That’s why the WTBA Executive Director brought two glasses filled to the halfway mark with construction cone-colored orange soda as he presented last Friday at the Wisconsin Concrete Pavement Association’s Annual Conference in Pewaukee.

In one glass, Baas explained, the transportation construction industry is in good shape thanks to $1.5 billion in new and ongoing money in the last two state budgets, hundreds of new projects each year, and record-setting let levels.

In the other? A more than $1 billion transportation funding shortfall awaits us in the next budget cycle, with several huge and critical projects like I-94 East-West in Milwaukee and I-39/90/94 from Madison to Wisconsin Dells already underway or on track to begin.

“The challenges we face in the half-empty glass are not going to be solved by one section or one sector of the industry alone. It’s going to take all of us working together,” Baas said, shortly before handing off to his presenting partner Debby Jackson with TDA.

Friday’s presentation gave Baas and Jackson the chance to demonstrate how industry coordination will be the key to solving that significant funding hurdle. The duo laid out the groundwork and gameplan WTBA, TDA, and other partners have already begun, giving the room plenty of optimism.

“We’re going to take that half-empty (glass) and, if we do this right and do it together, we’re going to make that full,” Baas said.

The goal, Jackson explained, is to make the general public understand this issue impacts everyone–not just transportation builders. It will require a multi-pronged approach, helping people realize funding shortfalls impact their community streets, rural bridges, freeways, and connecting highways that get us to work, school, and vacations.

Baas stepped in again momentarily, this time with his arms raised over his head.

“I’m going to date myself here for a moment,” Baas admitted. “This is our Diane Court strategy.”

Referencing the 1989 classic romcom “Say Anything,” Baas urged attendees to make the need for transportation investments impossible for lawmakers to ignore as we head into the 2027 budget process.

“What does Lloyd do,” Baas asked. “He’s standing out under her bedroom window with the boombox playing ‘In Your Eyes’, right?

“This campaign is Lloyd, with the boombox… until eventually Diane Court realizes that she loves him and it all works out together.”

A series of upcoming public discussions on transportation and the importance of a well-funded system provide an early opportunity to Say Something.

There will be six “Turnout for Transportation” roundtables held May 14-28. Locations include Appleton, Oak Creek, Janesville, Wausau, Eau Claire and La Crosse. Each morning’s discussion will run from 7:30-9 a.m. and will include community leaders, industry partners, lawmakers and candidates for office.

Click HERE for more information and for free registration.