Highway 50 closure at about 7 p.m., Monday. More water across the westbound lanes than the eastbound lanes.
Highway 50 may not open until Tuesday at the earliest while the Wisconsin Department of Transportation awaits the final less than 12 inches of water to recede, state Rep. Samantha Kerkman said at a press conference Monday afternoon in Silver Lake.
And even after the water is all off the roadway, WisDOT officials say the road base needs to do some drying as well, Kerkman said.
Highway 50, a divided state highway, is the major east-west road through Western Kenosha County.
Highway 50’s closure at the Fox River bridge was perhaps the most obtrusive of numerous highway closures in the wake of last week’s heavy rains.
Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Horace Staples, director of emergency management, said by Monday mid-afternoon, only three other highways remained closed to all traffic: Highway W north of Highway F, Highway B from Highway F to Highway AH and Highway EA from Highway S to Highway L.
Kerkman also said motorists should be aware of county highway department staff working to shore up base and shoulders of roads while the roads have been reopened to traffic.
In the meantime, deputies will still be on the look out for people driving around barricades and through standing water. Staples asked motorists to not do it in part because it causes wakes that frustrate clean-up efforts by pushing water against adjacent homes.
“If we see you, we will stop you and have a nice little chat,” Staples said, adding that Sheriff David Beth has authorized two additional squads for Western Kenosha County.
Here is video showing the Highway 50 closure from Friday through Monday:
Somebody better take a real good hard look at fixing that stretch of one of the most important roads in the county. They need to get someone in there with a little knowledge of how water works, because they obviously failed big time in that department when they built the road! I know, “record floods”…so now that we know, they better fix it! No more excuses!
LOL You want another Roundabout lol Grow up or move!!!!!!—————–
The picture at the top of the story shows what’s wrong with this bridge and the approach. Why would anyone have designed this this way. If anything it should’ve been raised up another couple of feet, both the bridge and the approachs going to it.
Fixing the road takes it out of commission for months, it’s been closed like 6 days in the last 10 years, Hwy 50 is fine
No. They would run one lane in each direction over the old then new bridge section during “re-construction”. Never would be fully closed.
6 days? For you. How many times do you need to cross this bridge in a day??
Veterans trucking on the south end of Burlington crosses that bridge dozens and dozens of times per day. You want to pay the extra fuel bill from them for the detour?
Get a clue. Businesses are losing big time going around this state DOT screw up
Sandbag the shoulders, pump the water off, and open the road.
My biggest issue was that there were no detour routes posted and people including myself were driving in circles as we are not familiar with the back roads.
So because some people are too stupid to read the road closed sings and follow the detour Wisconsin should build the road higher and flood MORE homes and businesses in the area?
Call the DNR and see if they will allow it.
Wetlands Can’t be filled in!
Don’t fill in the wetlands build a bridge over them. Ever been to the Florida keys?