The Wisconsin Department of Transportation just announced the official start date for one of its biggest ever construction projects, the I-94 East-West project, which will reconstruct and widen a 3.5-mile stretch of interstate highway in the city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County.

This is a massive project with an estimated cost of more than 1.7 billion dollars. And with this official start date announced also came estimates for how long this will take. According to the DOT, construction is expected to last until 2033. And we know that these plans always underestimate how much things will cost or how long this will take.

At The Recombobulation Area, this project — and the local opposition to it — is something we’ve covered extensively, including with an award-winning four-part series called “Expanding the Divide.” 

With these plans now becoming a reality, it might be worth revisiting that series and considering just how awful these plans are, how unnecessary and expensive an extra lane is and how in southeastern Wisconsin, we’re going to be dealing with construction and delays for the next eight years in order to shave a few minutes off of suburban commute times while city streets and city problems go ignored once again.