Rain, snow or slush, construction continues

A record-setting weekend snowstorm that smothered the Upper Midwest mired many towns throughout Wisconsin in snow, heavy winds and freezing rain.

But it was another day at the office for Veit and J.H. Findorff & Son, which worked to keep the incoming BMO Tower on-schedule over the weekend. And that wasn’t the only project to move forward despite the bad weather.

Work also continued on Milwaukee’s streetcar line, Interstate 94 and the city’s Zoo Interchange.

“Our crews continued excavation work at the BMO Tower site over the weekend,” said Rob Oldenburg, vice president of development at Irgens, the tower’s developer. “Because of weather conditions (on Monday), construction activities at the BMO Tower site are focused mainly on loading and hauling of demolition debris. Safety is a top priority in all of our projects.”

Mark Irgens, CEO of Irgens Partners, which is the developer of the BMO Tower, posted a photo on Twitter of Findorff and Veit crews preparing the building’s foundation for a coming 26-hour concrete pour in May — which promises to be among the largest in state history. The project remains on-schedule, he wrote, despite a winter storm that set snowfall records in Green Bay and the Twin Cities.

Findorff and Veit working on snowy Sunday – keeping BMO Tower on schedule for upcoming 26 hour continuous concrete foundation pour for mid-May pic.twitter.com/0wAve1DLeN

— Mark F. Irgens (@MarkfIrgens) April 15, 2018

Nor did the weather derail work on the I-94 expansion, or reconstruction of Milwaukee’s Zoo Interchange. Michael Pyritz, a Wisconsin Department of Transportation spokesman, said crews planned “limited” work between Friday and Sunday. By Monday, crews were on-site again.

In all, Milwaukee saw about four inches of snow by Monday. That was practically a drizzle compared with the walloping seen in much of the rest of Wisconsin.

The snowstorm ranked as the second largest to ever hit Green Bay, where 23.5 inches fell, according to the National Weather Service.

Nearly 15 inches of snow fell at the Minneapolis airport between Friday and Sunday, setting a new record for the largest April snowstorm there. It was also the snowiest start to a calendar year; 70.3 inches of snow has fallen in 2018.

The storm even prompted Enbridge Energy to temporarily shut down oil and gas pipelines in Michigan – lines that were recently struck and damaged by a ship anchor. Enbridge closed the pipelines on Sunday afternoon following a power outage at a terminal in Superior,  said Ryan Duffy, a company spokesman told The Detroit News. The company will keep the twin pipelines shut down until weather improves in the Straits of Mackinac, which connects Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.

We got our share of nasty weather here in southern Wisconsin, but northern and especially central Wisconsin really got slammed. Check out the 3-day totals near and west of Green Bay! #wiwx pic.twitter.com/ROf0TKjhtS

— NWS Milwaukee (@NWSMKX) April 16, 2018

 – The Associated Press contributed to this report Follow @natebeck9