Cable-barrier project continues effort to make Highway 16 safer in Waukesha County

Highway 16 will get another round of cable barrier installations, part of a state safety initiative in an area where fatal head-on collisions occurred in the past decade in Waukesha County.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation announced the start of the $2.1 million improvement project, scheduled to begin Monday, April 1, and last until sometime this summer, that will complete an effort started in 2018 on portions of the state highway from Oconomowoc Lake to its junction with Interstate 94 in Pewaukee.

The work is not expected to result in any road closures or detours.

Where is the Highway 16 work taking place in Waukesha County?

Construction crews, under prime contractor Highway Landscapers Inc., will install new median cable barriers from just east of County Road C, about a mile west of Highway 83, in the village of Nashotah to Capitol Drive in the village of Pewaukee. That stretch of Highway 16 passes through Delafield and Hartland, as well.

How will the cable barrier project affect Highway 16 traffic?

State transportation officials said the work will result in shoulder closings throughout the project and single-lane closures during off-peak traffic hours. The work will also include new pavement markings and the removal of two maintenance crossovers to improve safety.

Because the road will remain open at all times, no detours will be needed, they said.

What is this safety-oriented project all about?

The state's summary of the current project didn't go into detail about the reason for the 2024 work, but state officials previously did during a similar project in 2018.

Essentially, the state decided to install more cable barriers — long stretches of thick cable attached to posts — in medians to prevent vehicles from crossing into oncoming traffic when drivers lose control and cross over, sometimes resulting in head-on collisions.

Such work has been done statewide in areas where cable barriers are needed to prevent fatal head-on crashes.

Where and when did head-on collisions occur on Highway 16?

Two instances happened on Highway 16 in Waukesha County in recent years, making the road's safety a point of local concerns, with municipal officials in the county requesting state action. Officials acknowledged that cable barriers could have made a difference in both cases.

On Sept. 8, 2013, along the highway's route through Nashotah, an eastbound automobile driven by Glenda Skalecki, 51, of West Bend lost control and crossed the median. It resulted in a head-on with a vehicle driven by Nicholas Rindt of New Berlin. Skalecki and her passenger, Karen Gully, were pronounced dead at the scene. One of Rindt's two children, his 7-year-old daughter Amie, suffered serious permanent brain and spine injuries.

On Nov. 8, 2015, Kent Girmscheid, 24, of Pewaukee, was eastbound on Highway 16 near Nashotah when he lost control and crossed the median, colliding with a westbound minivan driven by Jon Elertson of Watertown. Girmscheid and Joann Elertson, 68, the minivan driver's wife who was a passenger, died in the crash. (Girmscheid's vehicle was also struck by another westbound vehicle as the accident unfolded, contributing to the injuries.)

Where and when were cable barriers previously installed?

In addition to the 2024 project, the state conducted two other projects in recent years involving safety barriers in the Lake Country area of Waukesha County.

On Highway 16, cable barriers were installed in two separate segments in 2018: from southbound Highway P near Oconomowoc Lake to 5,000 feet east of Highway C in Nashotah; and from Wisconsin Avenue in the village of Pewaukee to I-94 along the border of the cities of Pewaukee and Waukesha.

In 2019, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation also installed cable barriers along the median of Interstate 94 between highways 67 and SS in Waukesha County as part of the same safety initiative. That action was not directly related to the Highway 16 fatal crashes, however.

Contact reporter Jim Riccioli atjames.riccioli@jrn.com.