April 21, 2023

By Lane Kimble

An average of 2,000 vehicles a day need to find alternative routes between Wausau and Mosinee – and will for quite some time.  April 2, a double box culvert collapsed on Highway KK in Marathon County.

Thankfully no one was hurt, but the Highway Department closed the road in both directions.

Even though the culvert was scheduled for replacement this summer, a new one won’t arrive until May 30.  Replacement work will then take another several weeks.

It’s a singular example of a broad problem impacting the region, state, and nation: waiting for the very end of infrastructure’s lifespans costs time and money now.

“We’re trying to get every last year out of every [piece of] infrastructure that we have,” Marathon County Highway Commissioner Jim Griesbach told WTBA.  “Culverts and bridges, we’re running them to the very end.”