June 20, 2025

By Lane Kimble

GREENFIELD, Wis. — Interstate 894 in Milwaukee County transformed almost overnight this past weekend.  What had been a stretch of cracked and pothole-filled roadway is now nearly four miles of fresh, incredibly smooth pavement.

Magic?  No.  Deja vu?  Sure.

Payne+Dolan (Walbec Group) crews and fellow subcontractors utilized a rare full directional freeway closure to work day and night, starting on the westbound lanes in early June and the eastbound lanes June 13-15.

They had the opportunity to do part of the freeway last September.  This time, they’re totally finished.

“It’s relief and joy,” Operations Manager Dan Markeland said.

Supported this time by 70 dump trucks running non-stop, crews milled the existing pavement, replaced it with fresh asphalt, and striped the freeway, finishing more than five hours ahead of schedule.

“It’s not an easy feat to take on a project like this and everybody from field personnel all the way up to upper management is super willing to help out on this,” Senior Project Manager Joe Jones told WTBA.  “It’s much safer, it’s a lot better quality of a product and I believe it’s, hopefully, the way of the future.”

Much of the task at hand was similar to last year, but 2025’s workload was even greater.  Crews had to pave all three lanes in both directions, while also paving reconstructed shoulders and all of the on and off ramps.

P+D was able to accomplish in a few nights what would take weeks or months under normal single-lane closures.  It took great coordination (and many months of meetings) with WisDOT, local leaders, police and fellow contractors.  In the end, it was well worth the time.

“Our (company’s) value of safety is extreme and this is the definition of extreme: shutting down a freeway for us and making it work.  That value to us is huge,” Markeland said.

Prime contractor Zignego Company will close out the multi-year project this summer.