Highway 100 road work has already impacted your traffic route. And it might be getting worse.

Jane Ford-Stewart | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

HALES CORNERS - A traffic nightmare around Highway 100 reconstruction in Hales Corners could be about to get worse.

Wisconsin Department of Transportation officials are considering shutting down both Forest Home Avenue and Janesville Road for three months from Highway 100 east to where they join.

Part of the idea is to free the area sooner from the traffic backups that have strangled it since the Highway 100 project started. If the roads are not closed, the backups will continue until next July, officials said.

In essence, the DOT is weighing whether to have the current traffic nightmare there continue for another year, or significantly shorten that span, but make the nightmare far worse for three months, by adding more road closures

The DOT officials could decide as early the week of July 9 on the proposed closure that would end just short of the Forest Home Avenue driveway into Pick 'n Save, said Paul Watry, senior project engineer.

Closure could come as early as July 23, he said.

The detour

The DOT detour would funnel traffic onto Highway 100 to Layton Avenue. The detour would turn east on Layton, taking that to 84th Street, where a short southern leg would take it to Forest Home Avenue.

If the two roads are closed, a huge sewer can be laid under Highway 100 more quickly. Also, both Janesville and Forest Home can be reconstructed and the traffic roundabout finished where they join.

The alternative is the same closure, but for two or three weeks to install the 7-foot-diameter storm sewer under Highway 100, another week-long closure to pave Highway 100 through the Janesville Road and Forest Home Avenue intersections with Highway 100 and probably other shorter closures, Watry said. All the time, Janesville Road and Forest Home would stay at one lane in each direction with all the regular traffic backups until July 2019, he said.

Funneling all traffic onto Highway 100, which is already ripped up for reconstruction, would not be as bad as drivers think, Watry said after the meeting. Computer modeling has estimated delays at 3 to 6 minutes through the corridor at rush hours, he said.

Highway 100 is two lanes in each direction, down from three normally. The first week or so would be the worst while drivers get used to it, he said. But the DOT would monitor backups and try to adjust the timing of traffic lights to help traffic move smoothly, he said.

Businesses hurting

With the traffic situation so bad, businesses are limping along, already. Whether they can survive a three-month closure is critical to the DOT's decision, Watry said.

The DOT met with affected businesses on Monday, June 25, but Village President Dan Besson went door to door, speaking to owners. He said at a special village board meeting with DOT officials on Thursday, June 28, he found no one in outright opposition. However, there was strong feeling the work be done in three months and the streets opened up, he said. They didn't want the street ripped up and then left for weeks, as they said happened in front of the Bosch Tavern, he said.

They wanted guarantees and Besson pushed hard to get them.

"We have businesses that are really hurting," Besson emphasized to the DOT officials.

'Effectively closed'

Robert O'Connor, owner of Jetz Convenience Center, 6101 S. 108th St., said, "We're effectively closed." He said he wanted the area opened up as soon as possible.

However guarantees aren't possible when weather is a factor and where unexpected conditions can pop up, as has happened already in the project, said Dewayne Johnson, director of the DOT division of transportation system development, southeast region. The Highway 100 construction contractor discovered he would have to blast through rock to dig down far enough, he said.

To help enforce a three-month deadline, the DOT can impose fines, Johnson suggested.

"A financial incentive really helps," Besson said.

Fines will be unlikely, as the contractor was confident that three months was reasonable, Johnson said.

Gravel access

Also, all businesses will have gravel access.

"We will maintain a generous one-lane road on gravel," Watry said.

At Hales Corners Liquor & Beer, 10561 W. Forest Home Ave., a fair distance east of the proposed closures, manager Dennis Kaun said, "My preference is to do it as fast as possible." He spoke with a DOT official earlier and said, "I didn't like his answers as far as accessibility for three months."

"There will be no access to the west from my place," Kaun said.

Both Johnson and Watry said they want to work with businesses to reduce the impact, whether the roads stay open or not. They have been doing just that, said Doug Nalbert, president of Holz Motors, 5961 S. 108th Place.

"Everybody from the state has been just wonderful to work with," he said before the June 28 meeting. The Highway 100 project affected his dealership significantly, he said.

As to the potential closing, he said, "To me, it's a horse apiece. They've been making good decisions."

Critical

There was some irritation among trustees that closure, whether for three months or periodically, should suddenly be needed. The reason is that the big equipment needed to install the extra-large sewer doesn't fit in the closed section of Highway 100 and still maintain worker safety, Watry said.

Didn't anyone realize that such large equipment would be needed before this? asked Trustee Roger Brinkmeier.

State officials have some idea of what equipment will be needed on projects, Johnson said, but, "we do not control what the contractor wants to bring on site."

Going over the plans in February, state officials didn't always have scale measurements, Watry said. Also, they are more concerned about the weight of equipment and whether its arms are long enough to dig deep enough, he said.