WisDOT awards Michels $107.4M contract for I-43 expansion

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation has awarded Michels Corp. a $107.4 million contract to widen and rebuild Interstate 43 between Mequon and Grafton.

Michels, of Brownsville, beat out offers from three rivals with its bid to rebuild a 9-mile section of the roadway. The offer came in WisDOT’s November bid letting and was the single-biggest road project the agency has bid out so far in 2021. Another big part of the project, likely worth at least $60 million, is to go out for bid in a letting that will close later this month.

Competing against Michels were Zenith Tech, which offered $110.3 million for the job, and Zignego, which bid $112.6 million. WisDOT counted Mashuda Contractors, of Princeton, as a non-responsive bidder for failing to submit documents required to claim status as a disadvantaged-business enterprise.

The contract is part of broader plans to widen I-43 between Glendale and Grafton, a project that could cost about $550 million. It would add two lanes of traffic to the four-lane highway. Work on it started this year and is to wrap up in 2025. Lawmakers enumerated the project in the state’s latest two-year budget.

In addition to Michels’ contract on I-43, WisDOT awarded Zenith Tech a $57.6 million contract last spring for bridge-replacement work on the interstate. Follow @natebeck9