Highway 33 Construction Behind Schedule; Weather, Utility Work Blamed

Construction of temporary lanes on the north side of Highway 33 to divert traffic during later steps in the project have yet to be completed, and Port Washington City Administrator Mark Grams said it likely won't be until after the Fourth of July — putting the Highway 33 project about two weeks behind.

"The primary reason for the delay is a little bit of the weather, but also because the utilities are behind in their work," he said.

The project calls for from South Tower Street in Saukville to the Milwaukee River overflow bridge in Port Washington. The road will be widened to four lanes with a median, and three roundabouts will be added at the intersections of Highway 33 and County LL, Highway 33 and Northwoods Road, and Highway 33 and Market Street.

The addition of first roundabout involved the demolition of the County LL bridge, completed in early June and accompanied by loud, overnight jackhammer work — an incident that brought a number of complaints to the city's attention.

"I apologize for the residents in that area that had to put up with it for that night," Grams said.

"I’ll take the heat, too, and apologize to citizens who had to deal with 12:30 to 5 a.m. jackhammering," Port Washington Mayor Scott Huebner said. "I never fathomed they would be jackhammering with houses less than a couple hundred feet from where they were — my apologies to anyone who lost a whole night of sleep."

Despite the delays, state Department of Transportation Communications Manager Emlynn Grisar said the construction is moving right along.

"We're making good progress.  Weather is always an issue for us, but we are still on schedule to maintain (the overall timeline)," she said.

Construction on Highway 33 is slated to last until early December, and then pick back up in April, with completion expected in April.