Highway W to close in August for its big move

Highway W in the Village of Saukville will be closed to traffic from Highway 33 to Schowalter Street beginning in August until October for its reconstruction as part of a project that includes moving the road to the east and restoring wetlands included in the historic oxbow there.

The $3 million highway project seeks to alleviate frequent flooding of Highway W by raising the roadway, moving it to the east and installing two large culverts under it.

The culverts will allow the Milwaukee River to flow under the road when it rises into the historic oxbow to the east and then flow back out, helping keep the highway open to traffic during rainy weather.

In decades past, work on Highway W removed the oxbow, forcing the river to flow over the road on an almost annual basis, often closing it to traffic and threatening nearby homes and property.

The project will create a 67-acre park, including nine acres of wetlands in the oxbow that will include land donated by the Village of Saukville as well as ancient native archaeological sites.

The future park has been dubbed the Milwaukee River Oxbow Nature Preserve. It will include trails, a kayak launch, fishing and informational signage or kiosks calling attention to the archaeological findings that date back approximately 1,500 years, officials have said.

The county Highway Department will oversee the road construction, although county supervisors have contracted with the civil engineering firm raSmith to help manage the project.

Last week, supervisors on the Public Works committee added as much as $15,000 to the raSmith contract and another $20,000 for construction staking, which is likely to start this month, according to a memo to the Public Works Committee.

The county is responsible for 20% of those costs, or $7,000, while the state Department of Transportation  will cover the rest.

Those additions bring the total contract for raSmith to $194,849.

The highway construction contract was awarded to Manitowoc-based Vinton Construction for $2 million.

The majority of construction costs are covered by state Department of Transportation grants.

Earlier this month, the Natural Resources Committee, which is overseeing the development of the Milwaukee River Oxbow Nature Preserve portion of the project, voted to accept a Wisconsin Coastal Management Program grant of $90,000 to support reconnection of the Milwaukee River to the historic floodplain, wetlands and oxbow.

A 60% non-federal match of $150,000 is required, which will be provided by a Wisconsin Emergency Management grant for a total project cost of $240,000.

The committee also accepted another $150,000 grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to restore habitat in the oxbow area.

That grant was part of a $500,000 grant that is also funding restoration work at Sucker Brook in the towns of Port Washington and Belgium and at Clay Bluffs Cedar Gorge Nature Preserve in the City of Port Washington

Development of the oxbow nature preserve has required the county to acquire several properties, including one owned by the Village of Saukville, adjacent to the highway, most of which can’t be developed because it’s in the flood plain.

In other news, the cost to the county of buying wetland mitigation credits will be less than officials first feared.

The state Department of Natural Resources originally considered the highway and oxbow as two parts of the same project and ruled the county exempt from having to buy mitigation credits, which are purchased to “replace” the two acres of wetlands being filled in as part of the road construction project, since more than nine acres are being restored in the oxbow.

But the federal Army Corps of Engineers didn’t agree and ruled they are two separate projects and required the county to pay $375,000 in credits for destroying the two acres of wetlands.

But county Planning and Parks Director Andrew Struck told the Natural Resources Committee that the Corps of Engineers “has given us a break” by agreeing to a lower  and less expensive classification of wetlands.

“We’re confident we will come in under the $375,000,” he said.

Fortunately, construction and engineering costs for the project have come in under budget for 2026, leaving room to pay for the credits from already budgeted funds, County Administrator Jason Dzwinel said.

Work has already started on the Oxbow Nature Preserve and is expected to be complete next year.