CALEDONIA — Residents in Caledonia are preparing themselves for construction on Highway 32 that could potentially start in the spring and last through November 2019. And county officials are forcefully asking state transportation officials to improve their oversight on such projects.
On Thursday, the Caledonia Douglas Avenue Business Association held a public meeting at the Caledonia Village Hall with members of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to get an update on the Highway 32 construction project planned for between Five Mile Road and slightly north of Six Mile Road. As part of the project, the triangle intersection of Highway 32, 31 and Six Mile Road is planned to be reconstructed.
Mark Wilfert, project manager for WisDOT, said the department plans on selecting a contractor in mid to late December and anticipate the actual project will start in March and end in October or November.
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“The majority of this project is a mill and resurface,” Wilfert said. “The majority of the work on (Highway) 32 is basically a maintenance type project, where we’re milling off existing surface and putting new asphalt over the top.”
Wilfert said the project is designed to add capacity to Highways 32, 31 and Six Mile Road, along with adding curbs and gutters and a new storm water sewage system.
One important part of the project is the contractor will have to replace the box culverts at Matthew Drive and Harvest Lane.
“Those are critical to the construction timeline as the road will be completely closed when the box culverts come out,” Wilfert said. “That’s kind of the determining factor.”
Tough questions from Delagrave
Upon hearing that information, Racine County Executive Jonathan Delagrave, who was sitting in the audience, asked if the culverts would be built onsite or offsite.
Wilfert said WisDOT gives, “that option to the contractor so we get the cheapest alternative.”
Delagrave was not satisfied with that answer.
“Because if (the box culverts) are built on site the road is going to be closed longer,” Delagrave said. “I don’t understand why you’re giving the contractor the option. You’re the DOT.”
Wilfert responded with “that’s not how we typically do our projects.”
Delagrave, a former Caledonia village president, said if contractors build the box culverts onsite it would prolong the construction project, to which Wilfert agreed.
“If they build them onsite it’s because they can make more money, it’s going to hurt all the businesses on (Highway) 32,” Delagrave said. “Again, why do you give them the option to do that?”
Although it was acknowledged that the WisDOT representatives who were present at Thursday's meeting don’t make the policies, Delagrave seemed frustrated with the answers.
“I could really care less about the contractor, I care about the businesses,” Delagrave said. “Unfortunately, the DOT cares about the contractor and not the businesses.”
'The system is broken'
Racine County has been dealing with issues with one contractor in particular, Caledonia-based Cornerstone Pavers, and the project on Highway MM in Mount Pleasant, which was originally supposed to be finished by Oct. 1 and now likely won’t be finished until the end of December. Cornerstone has stated that utility issues have been one of the main causes of the delay with that project.
Although the Highway MM project was never specifically named, Julie Anderson, Racine County's public works and development services director, urged WisDOT officials to improve the bidding system and oversight over its projects.
“We are currently dealing with one huge mess in this county and it has to do with how the DOT contract is structured,” Anderson said. “The system is broken and I’m going to tell you why: These contractors are driving these projects, not the DOT, and that has to change. It has to change and it has to go up the ladder to the legislative folks.”
Anderson said elected officials in the state Legislature need to allow WisDOT to “drop the hammer on these contractors” who aren’t abiding by regulations or keeping the project on time.
“In my mind and my experience, the DOT system for bidding and for allowing these contracts to run the projects and drive the projects on their terms and not on the DOT’s terms is ridiculous, it is out of control,” Anderson said. “Right now we are dealing with a nightmare of a project in Racine County and it’s a very public project. It’s affected a lot of people and I’m not even going to say the name of it because everyone in this room knows what project that is, and we have no idea when that project will be done.”