Mitchell Interchange

Mitchell Interchange
RECo Completes Successful Project Ahead of Schedule

Interstate 94 N-S is the primary artery between Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois, two of the major international ports on the western Great Lakes. It is the most travelled highway segment in Wisconsin with the Mitchell Interchange section handling over 195,000 vehicles per day. In 2004 the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission recommended reconstruction of the 35 mile corridor between Mitchell Interchange at I-43, just south of Milwaukee, to the state border with Illinois. A previous 3 year study showing increased traffic congestion and a sharp increase in incidents of major injury accidents prompted the commission’s recommendations for full reconstruction of the 40 year old highway segment. Starting with the Mitchell Interchange in the north the highway would be updated by adding two additional lanes in each direction along with replacing the outdated entrance and exit ramps at the major intersections.

In February 2010 Walsh Construction was awarded the construction contract to build the first phase of the Mitchell Interchange section from Interstate 43 to College Avenue, a 5 mile segment which includes the main spur to The Mitchell International Airport. There are 11 pile/pier supported bridges being reconstructed with 22 new retaining walls in the segment. Project construction is scheduled by the contract to be completed by December 2010 forcing completion of the MSE retaining wall construction by September 2010. Given the extremely aggressive contract schedule Walsh awarded the MSE wall design and material contract to RECo based on our proven past performance and our commitment to providing enough resources to manufacture all of the MSE wall materials by the end of July 2010. In a little over 4 months over 135,000 square feet (6,100 precast facing panels) with two different architectural finishes and over 240 tons of soil reinforcing steel were designed and manufactured. Given our other commitments in the Midwest the schedule would prove challenging. By July 2010 all MSE wall materials had been manufactured and substantially delivered to the project. RECo finished the design and production of the MSE walls ahead of Walsh’s construction schedule and in turn completed an extremely successful contract with one of the largest contractors in the Midwest region.