Lane Kimble

MILTON, Wis. — Some of the safest new drivers on Wisconsin’s roads just might come from Rock County.

For the second time since launching Work Zone Safe Wisconsin last spring, the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association (WTBA) awarded a Milton High School student with one of its monthly scholarship checks.

Sophomore Aron Nuredini received his $500 prize during a brief ceremony outside the high school Thursday afternoon.  The event also marked the one-year anniversary of the program’s statewide launch and coincides with National Work Zone Awareness Week.

Nuredini, 15, recently completed the innovative online program during the classroom portion of his driver’s education class, which early program adopter Steve Steinke teaches in Milton.

“This has been really important in humanizing the people that are working behind the barrels in construction zones,” Steinke said.

Click HERE to watch News 3 Now (Madison)’s coverage of the check presentation

“Every session now I have kids, like Aron, who take that course, work their way through it, and I always reiterate at the end you can get something out of this besides a $500 check.  You get that knowledge of what you’re doing, that it’s important everyone gets home.”

WTBA developed the free course in early 2024 to better protect its members who build and maintain Wisconsin’s roads.  Work Zone Safe teaches teens what they’ll encounter in work zones through personalized stories, articles, and videos of men and women in Wisconsin who have been impacted by crashes.

More than 2,000 people have successfully completed the course, which students can take anywhere they have internet access.

The course helps driver’s education programs meet a new state law requiring at least 30 minutes of work zone-specific education for all students.

“Learning their stories, learning the rules of the road really help us hopefully educate our next generation of drivers to get into those safe practices, have their eyes up, phones down, move over, slow down,” WTBA Executive Director Steve Baas said.

“We’re hoping that over time the number of students who take the course builds and that also builds the safety of our roadways and our work zones.”

Every month, WTBA and its partners award a teen driver who finished the program with a $500 scholarship check, sponsored exclusively by the Wisconsin County Highway Association.  Other winners have come from Brookfield, Fish Creek, New London, Platteville, Reedsburg, Rhinelander, Verona, and West Allis, but Milton is the only one with two.

You can find the course by going to workzonesafe.com and clicking on the Wisconsin Work Zone Safe link on the homepage.

MADISON, Wis. — The drone of bagpipes playing “Amazing Grace” echoed off the buildings around Madison’s Capitol square Thursday afternoon.

Behind the players, about 100 people slowly walked in a solemn procession toward St. Patrick’s Church a few blocks away.  The group was made up of construction workers from various trades, honoring the lives lost in the industry during the past year.

It marked the 10th annual Construction Workers’ Memorial service, presented by the Construction Business Group and the Wisconsin Building Trades Council.

“We’re all brothers and sisters in construction,” said president business manager Operating Engineers Local 139 President Terry McGowan told WISC-TV.

“Many of the families of these fallen construction workers will be present, and we think that’s important because we want the families to know that their loved ones aren’t forgotten,” said McGowan.

Two construction workers and eight people in cars died in work zone crashes in Wisconsin in 2024.

Thursday’s crowd included family members of work zone crashes and other construction-related victims.  A handful of WTBA member companies and organizations joined the march and following church service.

WTBA extends its deepest sympathies to family and friends of the victims and salutes organizers’ overall goal: to one day not have to hold a memorial walk because everyone made it home safely.

A star-studded cast including Wisconsin’s governor, legislative and industry leaders, and even an NFL Hall of Famer inspired construction workers in Madison this week.

The Construction Business Group held its annual meeting Wednesday and Thursday at the Madison Club.

Gov. Tony Evers welcomed the crowd by touting his administration’s historic levels of investments in the transportation sector.  The governor pledged to restore collective bargaining rights for union workers and prevailing wage, and vowed to repeal Wisconsin’s right-to-work law.

“My goal is to keep our workers safe and our economy strong,” Evers said.

A bipartisan panel including Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, Senate President Mary Felzkowski, Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein, and Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer disagreed on certain policy positions, but found common ground on the topic of transportation as it pertains to the state budget.

Vos (R-Burlington) noted it’s “dumb” that the cost of fixing roads largely falls on Wisconsin drivers through the gas tax and vehicle registration fees when so many out of state tourists, especially from Illinois, use our highways essentially free of charge.

The show-stealer, though, was former Badgers and Cleveland Browns star tackle Joe Thomas.  The 10-time NFL Pro Bowler encouraged the group to be self reliant and focus on their individual roles for the betterment of the state.

“Barry Alvarez used to come into the training room every day (when I was at UW) and say, ‘Hey, Thomas!  How are you doing?”  And before I could answer, he’d always say, ‘Nobody cares.  Do your job,” Thomas recalled.

Thomas set an NFL record by playing 10,363 consecutive snaps.