WisDOT scaled back efforts to enforce weight restriction on damaged Zoo Interchange

While the Wisconsin DOT weakened weight enforcement efforts on Milwaukee’s Zoo Interchange, roughly 1,550 overweight trucks a week pounded the already damaged bridge section.

Still, WisDOT insists the span still would need replacement in the coming months, and even under the heaviest patrolling the numbers were not improving much. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, during the first 3½ months of the state patrol enforcement effort, inspectors pulled over 566 trucks while issuing 163 citations. So far in March, 95 trucks have been stopped and 80 have been ticketed.

On March 27, WisDOT had to take the drastic step of closing the northbound lanes of the Highway 45 bridge due to severe cracking that was originally discovered late last year. The bridge will now remain closed until it is replaced.

“Even our most aggressive enforcement was not making a dent in the numbers [of weight violators],” Christopher Klein, executive assistant to state Transportation Secretary Frank Busalacchi, told the Journal Sentinel. “Had we closed it two months ago, we would still be replacing the bridge.”