January 16, 2026

By Lane Kimble

WISCONSIN DELLS — When you pack more than 800 people into a room, you’re bound to have a multitude of differing opinions, backgrounds, and areas of expertise.

This week’s WTBA/WisDOT Contractor-Engineer Conference certainly did, but the theme across speakers on the event’s first day Thursday kept coming back to the same notion: we go farther and get more done together.

“Our confidence starts here – with WisDOT and industry working together and talking together and even sometimes arguing – but always together,” WTBA Executive Director Steve Baas told the crowd.

“That’s why this conference is so important to us at WTBA. The seeds planted here. The relationships built and strengthened here.

The issues discussed here are the ones that grow into increased public confidence, increased political support, and a brighter future for our industry and our state.”

The crowd filling the Kalahari Convention Center’s Africa Ballroom was also a record-setter, easily surpassing last year’s total and pushing capacity to the brink.

CLICK HERE to check out the photo gallery from Day One of CE 2026!

That included the seven breakout rooms Thursday afternoon, where several sessions were standing-room-only with interested attendees spilling into the hallways to listen in.

Day One topics included program updates from WisDOT DTSD Administrator Rebecca Burkel, letting and quantities data from DTIM Administrator Justin Shell, and a compelling and personalized safety presentation from ARTBA’s Brad Sant.

“We did have a great 2025 and in fiscal ‘25 we had over 450 projects, which is huge across the state of Wisconsin,” Burkel said during her remarks. “Typically, on average, in the past we had been doing more like 300, 350 projects, so having this large number of projects is really phenomenal. We have needs across the state and we can’t do it alone. Together we make that happen.”

WTBA will share all slide decks from the two-day conference with attendees early next week. A future Weekly Update will include links to the decks as well.

The conference continues Friday morning with WisDOT Secretary Kristina Boardman, a joint presentation between OnStation and HNTB, ethics, and various WisDOT updates.