While it won’t be music to drivers’ ears, the sounds of construction along a busy 2-mile stretch of Les Paul Parkway have begun — and it’s now a multiple-year project.
The $23.9 million resurfacing project, which begins in full on May 12 from Arcadian Avenue to Sunset Drive in Waukesha, had been listed as tentative as recently as January, initially as only a 2025 project. But in a news release a week ahead of the start date, Wisconsin Department of Transportation outlined how the work will be split into 2025 and 2026 phases.
The road, named for Waukesha’s music legend, has been designated as U.S. Highway 18 as well as state Highway 59 since the completion of the West Waukesha Bypass in 2020. As such, it carries a dense concentration of traffic daily. Unlike the newer portions of the route, DOT officials noted that the current project area has pavement dating back to 1988 and now has reached the end of its lifespan.
The project is focused primarily on pavement replacement, though other surface improvements — extended turn lanes at the intersections of Sunset Drive, Racine Avenue and Broadway and a new auxiliary lane from Racine Avenue to Broadway — are also planned. During the project, crews will remove a pedestrian underpass just south of Blackhawk Trail, work on sewer lines and reconfigure intersections with new signals and safety designs.
To manage the project, DOT officials decided to complete the project one side of the highway at a time. In 2025, the work will be on northbound lanes. The southbound lanes will follow in 2026.
Crossovers, as needed, will aid the two-way flow of traffic in single lanes during construction. A portion of the New Berlin Recreation Trail — from 1,000 feet west of Les Paul Parkway to Springdale Road — will be closed on both sides of Les Paul Parkway during construction, the DOT said on the project webpage.
The DOT did not list any specific end date for the 2025 phase of the two-year project, though work is expected to be suspended during the winter and all lanes open. Overall, the work is expected to wrap up in November 2026.
Contact reporter Jim Riccioli at james.riccioli@jrn.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Les Paul Parkway 2025-2026 road resurfacing project begins in Waukesha