Mequon Clog: The Blog of the Clog!

Either I am confused or the other drives are but going northbound on Port Washington is very confusing. At the Mequon/Port Washington Intersection it seems the right lane is for right turns only, yet people continue to go north despite there not being enough room on the other side. Then there is the somewhat less dangerous construction at Highland and Port Wasghinton.

I completely agree about the confusion. Work seems to happen in sporadic locations and then you find the next morning that barrels are in slightly different locations.

Last week, I was going east to get on I-43 and went in the lane I had for the previous several weeks. When I reached Port Washington Rd, I then saw a left-turn only sign for the lane. The expectation is that everyone memorizes the construction zone -- despite nobody receiving any information about any aspect of the project!

10 motorist can easily be confused because when one person diverts, just like a mother hen with her chicks; when one person goes, the rest will follow. I think all 10 motorist should pay for the repaving. The problem is that the motorists do not want to wait inline.

I was in that area recently and I didn’t notice any problems or confusion.

There are no signs at any of the intersections until you are compeletly on top of the intersections. In many cases it is too late to readjust! The Mequon Police have the nerve (in the JS) to state that the intersections are clearly marked?!!! Where in the heck do they get the idea that ANYTHING about this project is clearly marked?! This is rediculous!

I live just north of Mequon Rd and commute every day through this mess. It takes a lot of concentration to drive and know where to turn. The fact that it changes constantly makes this a challenge every morning and evening. I was at that off ramp last evening about a half hour before the cars plowed into the concrete, and it was VERY confusing where the west bound lane was at the off ramp.

This isn't the Marquette Interchange. Construction is what it is, you have to go slow, take your time and read the signs!! Stop putting on your makeup and drinking your latte and know that this will be an inconvenience until it is complete. Grow up people...road construction is a part of your life. Accidents happen because of people not paying attention. I know everyone works long hard days, but you chose to live where you live and if you have a long commute it is no reason to take your rage out on a project. This is clear that someone has so much time on their hands to take pictures of potholes that maybe they should spend their time volunteering for a worthy cause.

Nick, trust me, if I had more free time, there would be many more photos on this site. Also, I can do a great deal of volunteer work (and full-time+ job) and express my angst with this project.

It is no surprise that it was someone from Mequon in a Lexus that that went through the barricades and got stuck in the concrete. After all, he was from Mequon! "I drive a Lexus and have money, I don't have time to wait in line, the rules don't apply to me" was surely the thought process. As for the other old fart from River Hills driving the Grand Marquis (I'm sure it was white with Florida plates because they all are) he either wasn't paying attention or had the same mentality. It is hard to blame the third and subsequent cars because it is hard to see that far ahead. I think the first two drivers should split the 20K in damage. As a Mequon resident, I have had my fair share of frustration at the apparent ineptitude of the construction planners their. However, having more money than the average household does not give you the right to cut in line because you THINK you are more important, or talk on the cell phone while in line at the store, or bring your pet into a business! [edited out] WAKE UP MEQUONITES! [edited out] Have fun with the rest of the construction, it ain't over yet.

* Note: Moderator edited out sections not pertaining to the issue shall we say.

Spoiled rich folk that think they can do & drive whatever/wherever they want, I have been involved in numerous construction projects and can not think of any time when freshly poured concrete was not clearly marked. Rich obviously does not equal smart. If the moderator actually lets this post thru - I will faint.

Moderator Note: Sorry about your fainting spell.

People going where they shouldn't in construction areas happens all the time. Yes, sometimes things can be better marked. However, people will do it even if things couldn't be more clearly marked. I see it all the time at work (I'm not involved with this project). The two main causes are that people don't pay enough attention to their driving and that some people refuse to be delayed or detoured in any way. It doesn't seem to be worse in wealthier areas. I once saw someone go around two road closed signs and over a portion of road that did not yet exist - it was still being backfilled. The whole time people were yelling for him to stop. His response was that he pays too much in taxes to have to go another way home. Nevermind that he could have hurt himself and those working in the area.

Anonymous Email Posting below


The "good" citizens of Mequon need to get over themselves. Yes, it is an inconvenience to drive through construction, but think how nice it will be when it is finished.

You would have complained if they rushed through the job.

Try driving in a construction zone WITHOUT using your cell phone for once! How many times have I seen people turning left from Mequon Road onto Port Washington Road, during heavy traffic, one hand on the steering wheel and the other hand grasped around a cell phone glued to their ear.

Do I, as a taxpayer, want to pay $15,000 to $20,000 because idiots were NOT paying attention when they were driving. No freakin' way! I say the Police Department should fine all 10 of the inattentive drivers!

It happens in any construction site no matter what kind of marking there is. People are going too fast, not paying attention and dont want to wait.
I am glad they got stuck and I hope they get tickets and have to pay for the repairs. I drove through the area and it was clearly marked with tape, barrels with reflective tape and a few signs that said "LANE CLOSED". I guess a person paying attention would figure it out.

Anonymous Posting Sent by Email below
Every night I drive south on Port. I was amazed when some one decided to switch lanes just before Cousins. He basically forced himself in, with those of us around him with no way to back up or forward. And he held up the entire flow of traffic trying to turn left. Why you may ask did he need to switch lanes? Because in their infinite wisdom, the left lane in all 4 directions was designated a left hand only turn lane AND no SIGNS were posted until AFTER you got into one of the two lanes and one knew it about the split until they were well into the construction and saw the signs. These signs are great when placed well before the traffic starts clogging up in the construction zone. Now here is a simple solution, and if a dummy like me can figure this out, I certainly can not figure out why no one who gets paid to think of this stuff didn't!!! You simply
change the light pattern.

It really is easy! No rocket science or major math problems to solve!

1) Let all the traffic from Port going south go. Turn all three lights green on the south bound lanes so that whether you are in the left or right lane, you simply go. LEAVE THE OTHER THREE DIRECTIONS SIT AT RED LIGHTS!
2) Then let all the traffic on the north bound side of Port go. Let the other three directions sit at reds lights again!
3) Then let all the west bound Mequon Road traffic go. Let the other three sit at red lights.
4) Let all the east bound Mequon Road traffic go while the other three directions sit at red lights!

People need to stop complaining about the construction. It is hard for everyone, however, would people prefer for Mequon Road to get worse? If the city did not fix the road then more people would complain about the condition of it. What it comes down to is that people need to just pay full attention to driving and be aware of the signs. Everyone needs to relax a little and stop saying what the city and the construction company should have done. It's too late to go back and change the order in which they fixed the roads. Just deal with it, its not going to last forever.

I'm going to let you Mequon people in on a little secret, that you should have figured out by now, but apparently haven't.

AS LONG AS THE BARRELS ARE ON YOUR LEFT...you are in a lane of traffic.

Its not as tough as you people are making it. Really its not.

I am not surprised in the slightest over what happened on Meqoun road Wednesday night. Having lived in this area for the last five years, I have witnessed the general lack of driving skills or courtesy while "driving" Mequon road. Driving this path means taking one's life into their own hands and hoping for the best. If motorists would pay attention and drive the speed limit or hang up their cell phones... things like this wouldn't happen. I don't blame the construction company, I blame the drivers who plowed through the concrete. People are just too pushy in general. And I'm sick of this "me first" mentality. Your children have better manners than you do. Patience is a virtue. The construction will be over soon. Then there will be no excuse for stupidity and bad driving on Mequon road. Yet it will continue...

Anonymous Email

I travel the length of Mequon Rd. each day, through both the Green Bay Rd. intersection and the Port Washington Rd. intersection. I continue to be appalled at how seemingly slow and disorganized this DOT project is. I was at the intersection of Port and Mequon on the night that the drivers drove into the cement, although not at that particular time. The identification of which lanes were open was absolutely lacking. I was nervous that I was going to drive down into one of the construction abyss'. I also have the same reaction to the Green Bay/Mequon Rd intersection. It is so poorly marked, especially at night that I'm surprised there have not been serious accidents. All the comments by other writers are on the mark. There are huge sections that have been torn up for weeks with NO work being done on them; good climate days when no more than 10 workers are on site (across the entire length of Mequon Rd.); no communication from the city or DOT on timing or plans; workers stopping frustrated long lines of traffic to let in a worker going home at 2:30; etc. etc. etc. Isnt' it amzing that the Marquette Interchange project which is far larger is MUCH more organized than this smaller project

Another reason I continue to be baffled by the entire project plan is that not only do they have the 2 busiests intersections under total construction, they also have the other major north/south road, 76th St., under construction, as well as Port Rd and Highland Rd intersection. Who is running the DOT and how can be respond???????

Anonymous Email sent Friday - note that this is after the wet concrete episode

I pulled off onto the ramp at about 3 AM last night not knowing about the drivers who had previously had driven into the wet concrete. My thought was that this was very poorly marked and it wouldn't surprise me if people get confused about the way it was marked......very poor.

A whole 10 people drove down a closed lane? Wow. What about the other 10,000 who got it right?

Is it as easy to drive through a construction zone as it is to drive down a normal road? NO! Of course not! You have to slow down and PAY ATTENTION.

That means get off your cell phone. Stop your self-absorbed conversation. Turn-off the auto-pilot, and drive like you were taught to back in Drivers Ed.

The signage is fine for people who are driving. You don't get special treatment just because you live in a suburb full of rich people who are used to paying other people to think for you.

You don't like it? Then get your city to pay for valet service for you. There's no reason why the rest of the state has to pay for special treatment for Mequon.

What truly is amazing here is that Mequon Road is a 40mph road. There are cautionary 30mph signs. Probably 70% of the usual traffic passes through during rush hour and other driving times.

Nothing has been done to accomodate this. One can say that Mequon citizens are "rich suburbans used to paying other people to think for you" and other such diatribes.

This doesn't detract from the daily reality that as road work has "progressed" the construction workers have not adequately marked off and sectioned off construction areas.

I live on Mequon road, have seen countless times, bad signage, cars going into the wrong lane, felt dangerous bumps while driving over slowly that have lasted days and days and not been rectified until obviously someone has complained.

Those who whine at Mequon residents, evidently do not travel through Mequon Road/Port Washington Road during rush hour twice a day, minimum.

What should have been done is a website should have been set up on the Mequon city website. Not just a faceless name and number.

Homestead High School apparently were not even informed of the work being done, and this was just at the beginning of the project. This was just the first of countless stories leading up to the black comedy that has been and still is the Mequon Clog.

There are those who may lash out at Mequon and its' residents for whatever juvenile reasons, but let's stick with the facts of the many times idiotic and downright dangerous mistakes made by the construction workers.

This was a State run project, but now that the City of Mequon Police Dept. are now ticketing, it's evident that the City is now a part of the project.

So, why such quiet from City Hall? How does this affect the Mayor for the 2008 election?

There would have been guilt by association previously, but now that the City is involved, how can one not associate the City, and the Mayor, as being complicit in the lackluster response in making inefficient safety regulations efficient?

Have any of you ever left work to return the next day and find that somebody had moved something on your desk. That is what the constuction workers come back to every morning. Barricades that have been hit and tape ripped through because someone was in a hurry, not paying attention, or just felt that they were special and didn't have to wait in the traffic with everyone else. You are supposed to drive through constuction zones CAREFULLY! All of you who are worried about your priceless cars, think about the construction workers who get hit by those flying barricades and whose lives you dismiss as you drive through on your cell phones hitting workers with your side mirror.Also, please tell me why the hundreds of cars that drove that same stretch of road could follow the barricade markers, but the driver's of those cars involved in last Wednesday incident couldn't.To respond to those of you complaing that constuction is taking to long, stop damaging the concrete and the construction will finish much faster. I'm sure that all of you complaining about this constuction were probably the same people complaining to your mayor about the potholes and bumps you encountered. Just remember, you can't have it both ways. For those of you who have incurred damage to your cars... PAY ATTENTION!!!

Clog follow-up comment to postings of past several days

As with the letter received posted recently from the DOT, the prevailing attitude of those involved in the project (and from a number of posted comments) is that:

1. The whiny Mequonites complained about the road
2. The DOT and its contractors swooped in to the rescue only to find that they were helping a bunch of rich, mean-spirited, angry, fancy-car-driving (while using the cell phone continuously) snobs
3. Everything is safe and perfectly marked
4. Delays are due to the citizen destruction of fresh work and equipment in the construction zone

First, let me assure those making stereotypes that not everyone in Mequon is rolling around in bags of cash. What is being assumed as affluence in my observation is a large number of people that go to work, make a living, and pay taxes for projects like these in Mequon and elsewhere. You will find "attitudes" in every part of Milwaukee and the surrounding communities.

Yes, the highly used route through Mequon needed work, nobody disagrees with this. How to go about it is a different topic. Some say only simple resurfacing was necessary. I don't know the details, I didn't see any study of the situation.

I thought that the analogy in the most recent comment of moving objects on your desk while you were out was going to go the other way. I don't know how many times I've noticed in the morning that there were slight barricade changes and other route modifications. Getting up to Port Washington Rd only to find that you were now in a left-turn only lane was a bit disconcerting (the signs have been moved back a few car lengths now). Perhaps some of the moved items were from one crew to the next. The largest "moving" was when the road construction was switched from the outside to the inside -- many people got used to (slowly) rolling up further into the road to see oncoming traffic only to realize the morning after the change that they WERE IN TRAFFIC! (Remember the saying that "people are creatures of habit".) There has been absolutely NO communication to the citizens of Mequon about this project, what is going on, and what to expect.

I agree that most people are paying extra attention. It is nerve racking at times when trying to concentrate on what is coming up, especially at night (I've encountered very confusing situations when crossing a median area in the road to turn despite inching along). Without sufficient markings, notifications, lights, and signs, the likelihood that someone will not be on their top focus increases. And drivers include everyone from those who recently received a license to those running the kids to school, to the elderly who do not do quite as well with confusing situations.

I'll stress again, delays due to single lanes of traffic and torn up sections are easily accepted by nearly everyone, but safety issues can't be tolerated. To see a firetruck and ambulance stuck behind a semi or an exposed sewer are what really bother me. While it may have been easier from the construction perspective to tear up the road from Hwy 43 to Hwy 57, I can't see how this passes the handling of emergencies. Given the numerous reports of taking 15-30 min. to get from Homestead High School to Hwy 57 at times when there were large chunks taken out of the road in the construction lanes, how would an emergency vehicle have through that area?!

I have not witnessed purposeful destruction by people in Mequon of construction property. I'm sure that some happens, but to assume that it was all deliberate is a big assumption. Nobody wants to see injuries happen to workers or people trying to drive through the construction zones.

The driver did get tickets! FINALLY! Here is the news report from WISN 12. I see plenty of construction barrels and tape and signs. Clog: edited out unnecessary comment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQlZJHXohdU

Last night, 11/8/07, I returned back to Mequon at around 10pm. I took exit 85 Northbound and got off the ramp. As I am turning left, I can see ahead bright construction worklights working on Mequon Road/Port Washington. Now for those who travel here, the most recent change for those crossing Mequon Road and Port to go West on Mequon Road have two choices: a LEFT TURN ONLY lane and the right hand side lane for going straight and making a right.

So following the signs and markings, I go to the right hand lane to go straight. The problem is the workers on Port and Mequon road have blocked off my lane in the middle of Port rd, and now I have to move in to the LEFT TURN LANE to go straight ahead.

The cars in the LEFT TURN ONLY lane realise that cars going straight will COLLIDE with their cars so they start moving over.

This debacle gets going with the green light and we have two lanes of traffic trying to work in one tight lane.

There were three workers, two standing around, no signage, guidance or clue as to what to do.

These are city streets that must be governed by some directives for health and safety.

Cars having no clear routes are going to cause accidents that could injure those working and those on the road.

Does anyone care? What does OSHA say?

Yes they have fixed the markings now, and as much as I would have elected to make fun of the concrete surfing gang, they have full reason to be angry. Hear me out.

As I drove by the scene at most 30 minutes before the "accident", it's very easy to have done. Picture this. You are turning off the freeway onto westbound Mequon rd and there barrels down the middle of the two westbound lanes, fine. The problem is that the tape that was supposed to be tied from the POLE on the north side of the road to the BARREL in the MIDDLE of the road (that would have effectively crossed the wet concrete lane – preventing access), had torn off the pole to the north and was BLOWING SOUTH (almost horizontally) ACROSS THE LANE THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE OPEN.

It wasn't until two nights later that they installed a "Road Closed" sawhorse like barricade – effectively admitting the flimsy tape was insufficient. So while it may be clear now, it was far from clear on that evening.

Lastly, while cell-phone drivers and simultaneous latte drinkers are everywhere (and more so in soccer mom land), and I despise them more than any, those with incomplete information should apologize. These drivers should be seeking restitution form the construction company. Anyone who feels otherwise simply does not understand the case.