December 3, 2025
By Lane Kimble
Once the millions of tons of pavement are laid and striped, the orange barrels are mostly gone, and the detours largely released for the season, it’d be easy to go into hibernation mode for a bit and catch your breath.
Not if you’re Deb Schwerman.
The Wisconsin Asphalt Pavement Association executive director hit the ground–er… blacktop–running this week, holding one of the first big industry events of the winter, and urging attendees to never stop growing and improving.
“This room represents decades of knowledge and experience,” Schwerman told the crowd. “Learning from each other is one of the most valuable things we do.”
More than 350 people gathered for WAPA’s 66th Annual Conference at the Kalahari in Wisconsin Dells.
The two-day conference attracted the likes of WisDOT’s secretary and leadership team, the National Asphalt Pavement Association, technical experts, nearly two dozen vendors, and a slew of WTBA members and staff who attend winter conferences across the asphalt, concrete, and industry spectrum.
“It really is us working together to make this happen,” WisDOT DTSD Administrator Rebecca Burkel said. “We can’t do it alone. Partnerships matter. Us working together matters.”
WisDOT Secretary Kristina Boardman thanked WAPA members for their hard work in helping complete or make progress on 456 state-let projects in FY2025. That number will dip slightly to 417 in 2026, but there will be a lot of work to go around.
Early WisDOT projections show an estimated $1.61 billion let level for FY2026, which would mark a more than $200 million increase from 2025.
In addition to the ongoing I-41 expansion in the Fox Valley, the just-started I-94 East-West expansion in Milwaukee, and the newly approved I-39/90/94 reconstruction, Boardman reminded attendees the Transportation Projects Commission is preparing to meet Dec. 10.
The TPC could decide whether to begin studying a freeway expansion on I-94 in western Waukesha County.
“There’s been incredible progress on the transportation infrastructure,” Secretary Boardman said. “That is a lot of work that we have gotten done together… but there’s some more work to do.”
