Mequon Clog: The Blog of the Clog!

Addition to this posting: The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal published an expanded story of this situation Oct. 26th.
Addition: Mike Nichols posts refers to his own experience with the lack of clear construction markerings.
Addition: National Attention on ABC News

The MequonNow.com site posted an article about 10 motorists getting stuck in wet concrete. How can 10 people be so dumb as to drive into wet concrete?! After all, it surely must have been delineated with blinking lights and tape!

Obviously, those who live near Mequon Rd know better. The concern for public safety does not exist. It took nearly two weeks to put a little ramp at the two gigantic bumps at Port and MequonRd. When driving west on Mequon Rd from Port, I'm often left driving on the curb extension because the barrels are sporadically so far into the road. And judging from what I just read, if I accidentally hit one, I'll be facing a ticket!

Email 1
What I would like to know is why didn't the State simply have one side of the road done first and then do the other side. They used this method elsewhere.

Also does anyone know if the completion date is still "November".

Email 2
Fortunately I don't have to use that section of highway too often. However I was on it the other day and was just incredulous to observe that a major portion of it seemed to remain relatively untouched for months! During the 15 minutes it took me to negotiate the torn up road coming off of I43 North, I mused how nice it would be if a manageable section of roadwork could be done quickly before tearing up another section.

Email 3
According to the JS story 10/26, the police are considering whether to ticket the folks who drove into the wet concrete. That is outrageous. Those folks should file claims against WDOT and the City and sue J&A Pohl. These conditions have been and are dangerous, and someone in City government (including the Police Department) should wake up.

Email 4 -- Mequon Rd near Cedarburg Rd
My wife and I were coming home one evening going East on Mequon to turn into Thiensville. That intersection is ripped up to Hades. The barrels were all over the place. The intersection was not well lighted and there were shadows. I could not discern markings on the ripped up road. I had a green light, turned left from the left hand lane with no oncoming traffic . . . and . . . poof . . . we were pulled over by the Mequon police for making a left hand turn without the "left hand turn light" being on. You have got to be kidding me. After 15 minutes at the side of the road, suffering immeasurable embarrassment we were on our way without a ticket but a warning. The officer understood the confusion of the intersection and allowed me to continue on my way (after checking my plates and license of course) and was quite apologetic about the state of the road and intersection. The Mequon police were fairly understanding.

I finally had a chance to download a photo taken on a foggy morning (most had burned off by the time at the time of the photo). Imagine someone at night -- this looks like a field go to go through, not way around.

This is the first photo from the car:

And a close-up to see the lack of yellow tape and exactly what someone could be hitting if they weren't paying attention:

The other day, a friend mentioned how he got a new sun roof at no charge. He forgot about the bump and ... instant head through the roof!

After about 8-10 days, the construction workers were nice enough to put a little 10 inch cone on the left-hand side of the bump up to Mequon Rd at Port Washington Rd.

Brilliant!

It is now nearly 2 weeks and nobody has bothered to smooth out this bump. Just like this project, when you think that they have to be taking care of something any day now, it just keeps on going and going. What are they doing? Communication people!!

That is not figuratively, but actually hitting the dang road. I came off 43 and went west. Just after the intersection, I hit the paved road so dang hard that I nearly hit my head on the roof of the car!!! I get home and my wife says that it is the same going onto Port Rd south from Mequon Rd.

What the heck are they doing -- trying to destroy the axles on our cars and not just the tires?!!!!

I don't want to direct this towards those doing the work, but this more than poor planning, this is the complete lack of concern for those using the road.

Mayor wake up and take control. Anyone running against you need only connect you and the road construction.

As I continue to point out the problems just in my own little section, here is another ...

While trying to take the kids to school, I tried to exit down Robin Ln onto Mequon Rd, going east. No can do. It is blocked off by construction activity and vehicles (at least they were working). So, I had to go west. I tried to get into what should be a left turn lane, after all, there is a light for one. But the lane doesn't exist at all. If I followed the laws 100%, I would of had to block traffic in the single lane for everyone to go west while I waited for the cycle of lights in order to get the official left turn light. Needless to say, I did not follow the law to the T and allowed the other unfortunate drivers to continue west without my obstruction.

As an aside, I was unable to go east on Mequon Rd for the simple reason it is illegal to make a U-turn at a controlled intersection. Why is it that we have to follow all of the detailed laws while the city and state, represented by the "construction" company, don't?!!!

While I don't know why a fire engine was even attempting to go down Mequon Road, I witnessed one getting stuck with its lights flashing and being followed by an ambulance, also with lights flashing.

Due to the 1-lane syndrome, I saw that that the fire engine and ambulance were behind a large semi just east of the Range Line intersection. Once the semi got to the opening near Robin, it tried to allow the two "emergency" vehicles pass. Well, they couldn't. The semi had to back up to allow the fire engine and ambulance to sneak through in front of it.

If this doesn't fall in the definition of insane, I don't know what does! How much additional damage was done, or worse if there was a life-threatening situation, due to the fire engine and ambulance being however many minutes late?!!!

I also don't understand how the city sits back and does not do anything to protect its citizens from this activity.

I heard of two people last week that tripped while walking at night due to the extreme lack of safety markings. Fortunately, nothing major happened.

I don't understand how this project gets away with repeatedly creating safety problems and not properly delineating them. When the side roads north of Mequon Road were repaved last summer, all of the barricades had the yellow blinking lights on top. If that was done for side roads, wouldn't it make more sense to be doing it for high-traffic work?!

Once again, it is time to go to bed, so what does a completely inconsiderate construction company for the state of WI do? Yep, they start working. Where we're they during the day?! Not in Mequon.

There might be smooth road when this is done, but people are NOT going to forget this idiocy when it comes to taking care of a residential Mequon when they are standing in the voting booth.

At 6:30pm on a Wed. night, my wife made the mistake of going west on Mequon Rd. It took 15 min. from the light by Homestead high school to get past Hwy 57!

If this had been an actual emergency .. too bad!

Speaking of which, is the city and state ready to be sued if there is an actual emergency, G-d forbid! This is the worst planning for PUBLIC safety that I have ever seen. The ONLY concern is for a company that has started months behind and doesn't give a rip.

I just noticed on the MequonNow.com site the following:

THURSDAY, Sept. 13, 2007, 3:05 p.m.
By Tom Kertscher
Road closure part of project

Mequon - Range Line Road will be closed at Mequon Road from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday, Mayor Christine Nuernberg said.

The closure is part of the reconstruction of Mequon Road, she said.

I've gone down Range Line in the morning and see how much traffic gets backed up there -- now where are they going to go? While it is a useful site, I can't imaging that everyone is going to it daily to see what to "look forward to"!

If others can add to this sentiment, please let me know. It has become apparent from talking with others that there doesn't seem much rhyme or reason as to which sections of sidewalk and curbs were torn up and re-cemented. They skipped some back sections and redid others that weren't bad.

There might be some structural issues that aren't obvious to us "simple folk" of Mequon, but it would be nice to hear from just 1 person even what the heck is going on!

Did you get anything in the mail? I get a postcard in the mail when Joe down the street wants to make his garage bigger, why didn't I get even that about a job that so adversely affects me?!

Perhaps someone out there can fill me in on the advantages of resurfacing the road in asphalt rather than the cement that was being torn up?

Does asphalt last longer, resulting in less need of repair and resurfacing? Or is this taking a cheap option to ensure that there is future work that can be relied on?

Because the crew recently received permission to work on this poorly managed project at night! Not exactly the sound that puts one to sleep! I know that this probably gives away my location as it is a limited section of road and I only live a good block away from Mequon Rd. I can't imagine what it would be like living right next to this.

Hey, I'm all in favor of getting the job done. However, I went past this work area a number of times today and didn't see anything going on of significance. Why wait until night to pave? Because you only get 2x pay during the day and 3x at night on the weekend?!!!

Now comes the question of why the need to work at night. Because they started the project late and obviously don't have enough people. And if they don't have enough people, why go through and tear the entire 3+ mile stretch apart at one time?! But the reason I heard that they didn't have enough people is that the requirements for a minority percentage of sub-contract work wasn't easy to find. The reason -- they were busy with all of the Interstate roadwork in Downtown Milwaukee. Well, if that is the case, then isn't the quota requirements for minority sub-contractors being fulfilled already?!!! Should WI import out-of-state workers to build on WI roads?!

These are the worker preferred beverages. How do I know that? I see them littering the roadside all along Mequon Rd!