Highway X widening set to begin in Waukesha

April 19, 2010

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By Laurel Walker of the Journal Sentinel

April 19, 2010 0

Waukesha - Work started this week on the widening of a busy stretch of county Highway X on Waukesha's west side, where construction will be done while the road stays open to travelers through a combination of existing and temporary lanes.

About 18,900 to 20,700 vehicles per day use the 1.8-mile section, between Harris Highland Drive in the city to just north of state Highway 59 in the Town of Waukesha, said Ed Hinrichs, project engineer for Waukesha County.

The $12 million project will expand Highway X - a continuation of St. Paul Ave. that turns into Genesee Road - from two lanes to four lanes. It will taper back to two lanes on St. Paul Ave. and also on the south end, to the two-lane bridge over Pebble Creek.

Hinrichs said that bridge wasn't included in the plans because of the as-yet-to-be determined configuration of the west Waukesha bypass now under study. However, the project includes a new bridge structure over the Glacial Drumlin Trail and railroad tracks between Kensington and Macarthur roads.

Initial work will involve grading and paving gravel shoulders for their use as travel lanes.

Access to the Fox Run Shopping Center, at the corner of Highway X and Sunset Drive, will remain open, Hinrichs said.

The speed limit will be reduced to 35 mph throughout construction, which is expected to be finished by December.

Waukesha County is paying for 20% of the construction with state and federal dollars paying the rest.

About Laurel Walker

Laurel Walker covered local, school and county government for 20 years -- the last half of that at the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -- before she was named Waukesha County columnist in 1997. Today she writes about the people, places and events around metropolitan Milwaukee with a broad suburban focus. She was the youngest of nine children raised on a central Wisconsin farm before leaving the nest for journalism studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and a masters degree at the University of Oregon. She has spent the last half of her life in Waukesha County, where she and her husband raised two sons. Though she has a fondness for life in Waukesha, she eagerly partakes in the culture of the big city to the east and the recreation of the forests to the west. With sons in the arts, she has a special fondness for symphonic music concerts and art museums. She finds peace in a good book at a Northwoods getaway weekend, adventure in family visits to the east and west coasts, and satisfaction in a column well-written that reaches readers.