$181 million in Interstate 94 work starting this year

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Work ahead of the massive Interstate 94 East-West overhaul will start this year.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation has awarded a combined $181 million to two contractors for work ahead of a federally approved project to expand I-94 from three east and west lanes to four west of downtown Milwaukee.

The agency awarded more than $120.5 million to Waukesha-based Zignego Co. for the west leg of I-94 East-West between 70th Street and Zablocki Drive in Milwaukee. The transportation department also awarded more than $60.9 million to Waukesha-based Zenith Tech Inc. to work on the early east leg between 30th and 25th Streets.

The contracts have only been awarded at this point, and Gov. Tony Evers must sign them before they can be executed, said Dan Sellers, a spokesperson for WisDOT. Information on traffic impacts are expected to be released after the governor signs.

Both projects are adjacent to the 3.5-mile expansion of I-94 and conversion of the Stadium Interchange outside American Family Field in Milwaukee, which is scheduled to start in 2029. State and federal partners aim to widen the freeway from three lanes to four between 70th and 16 Streets, and the Stadium Interchange will be converted to a diverging diamond structure, plans showed. In March 2024, the project cost was estimated to be around $1.74 billion.

Zignego will be tasked with grading and concrete paving work and repair and replacement of bridges, noise barriers and retaining walls, plans showed. West leg construction is expected to start in fall 2025 and is expected to wrap up by summer 2029. The project has a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise goal of 9%, information from the Wisconsin Project Center showed.

The contractor won the bid over Hoffman Construction, which bid more than $131.7 million, and Lunda Construction, which bid more than $152 million, WisDOT data showed.

Zenith Tech will remove and pave asphalt on parts of St. Paul Avenue and North 27th Street, replace several structures and repair retaining walls. That project will start in 2025 and is expected to wrap up in 2028. There will be a DBE goal of 7%.

The company was selected over Kraemer North America, which bid more than $62.7 million, and Lunda Construction, which bid more than $69.6 million, WisDOT data showed.

In March 2024, the Federal Highway Administration approved WisDOT’s plans to widen part of Interstate 94. Roadbuilders said they were looking forward to hefty lettings and said the project would help enhance the region.

“It’s going to be a big project because we’re doing it right. We’re not just putting a patch on it and having to do it again in four to five years,” Steve Baas, executive director of the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association, told The Daily Reporter last year. “This is a fundamental redesign and reconstruction to improve safety, mobility and build for the future.”

However, social and environmental groups pushed back against the project and filed a lawsuit to stop it.

“It is extremely disappointing that the Federal Highway Administration issued a (Record of Decision) on a project that is currently under investigation for Civil Rights violations,” said Cassie Steiner, campaign coordinator for Sierra Club’s Wisconsin Chapter, in a statement. “The expansion of I-94 has received opposition from racial justice, religious, environmental, public health and transportation advocacy organizations for more than a decade, and all of those concerns are still true. Expanding this segment of highway will increase greenhouse gas emissions, cost taxpayers more than a billion dollars, increase air and water pollution especially for neighboring communities, and will almost certainly make congestion worse and car crashes deadlier.”