County Trunk Highway E Reopens After Repairs; Residents Still Confused About Its Purpose

WAUKESHA — County Trunk Highway E reopened to traffic Monday for the first time since emergency repair work closed it in mid-August, and residents using the road for the first time in weeks say the experience has left them no more certain than before about what, exactly, the road is for.

The county says the repairs, prompted by a failing culvert beneath the roadway, are complete and the road has been certified "fully functional and safe" by county engineers. Drivers who returned to it Monday and Tuesday describe a road that is, in the narrow technical sense, open, and in every other sense exactly as confusing as it was before the closure, if not more so, now that three weeks off it have apparently been enough to make people forget how it worked.

"I'm Still Not Confident It Fixed Anything"

Margaret Syska, 54, a commuter who has used CTH E to reach her job at a dental office off Sunset Drive for twelve years, said she took the road Tuesday morning out of habit and immediately regretted it. "I've probably been using this road wrong for twelve years," Syska said, "but I'm still not confident it fixed anything. It doesn't feel different. It feels the same amount of confusing, except now there's also fresh asphalt, which almost makes it worse, because it looks like it should make sense."

"I've probably been using this road wrong for twelve years, but I'm still not confident it fixed anything."

— Margaret Syska, 54, commuter

Syska said her specific confusion centers on a stretch near the county line where CTH E appears to merge with, split from, or briefly become a different road entirely depending on which of three posted signs a driver chooses to believe. She has developed a personal rule, unrelated to any official signage, of following whichever car ahead of her "looks like it knows where it's going," a method she rates as correct "maybe 60 percent of the time."

What The Road Goes Where

County Public Works Director Frank Novotny said in a Tuesday statement that the roadway "goes where it's supposed to go," though he declined, when asked directly, to specify which direction that was. Pressed further, Novotny said the road's function was "primarily connective" and that residents experiencing confusion should "consult a map, or better yet, several maps, and reconcile the differences themselves."

Novotny confirmed the repair project addressed only the failing culvert and did not include any changes to signage, lane markings, or the road's underlying purpose, which he described as "outside the scope of this particular contract" and "a longer conversation than I have time for today." He noted that the county has received no formal complaints about the road's confusing nature, only "a lot of calls that don't really have a question in them."

Unpredictable Patterns

Traffic on the reopened stretch has moved in what several drivers independently described as "unpredictable patterns" since Monday, including at least six documented instances of vehicles slowing to a near stop mid-road, apparently to allow the driver to reconsider. A county traffic camera near the road's midpoint recorded 14 such slowdowns between 7 and 9 a.m. Tuesday, a figure the county said falls "within normal range" for a road of this type, though it declined to specify what type that was.

Syska said she has since developed a workaround. "I take Newhall now, under the tracks, and come at it from the other side," she said. "It's four minutes longer. But at least I know which way I'm confused."

No Further Repairs Planned

The county said no further work is scheduled on CTH E through the end of the year and that the road will remain in its current, reopened configuration indefinitely. Novotny said he understood residents' frustration but noted that the road "has functioned this way since before I started with the county," and that the recent closure "was never intended to resolve anything except the culvert."

Syska said she plans to keep driving the road regardless. "It's the fastest way to the dental office," she said. "I just don't tell people I know that anymore. I tell them a different, longer way. It's easier than explaining."