Public Works Completes Lakeland Drive Repaving Just As Fall Leaves Prepare To Obscure It

WAUKESHA — Waukesha County finished milling and repaving County Highway C (Lakeland Drive) between Morris Drive and Watertown Plank Road early Wednesday, ending two consecutive overnight shifts that began at 7 p.m. Tuesday. The final pass of the roller was completed at 4:52 a.m. September 16, and the road was reopened to traffic at 5:10 a.m., in time for a morning commute that met the new surface with what witnesses described as "mild, private appreciation."

Peak fall color in southeast Wisconsin is forecast for mid-to-late October, between roughly October 14 and October 24, leaving the new asphalt roughly 28 to 38 days of unobstructed visibility. A county spokesperson characterized the timing as "coincidental" and said the paving schedule had been set in July, "before anyone had looked at a tree."

The Window

Bob Krueger, 72, a retired city Department of Public Works supervisor who reviews area road work in a personal capacity and shares his findings with this newspaper, drove the corridor Wednesday at 6:15 a.m. and again at 4:30 p.m. He rates the surface 8 out of 10, deducting one point for a manhole cover near Morris Drive that sits three-eighths of an inch proud and one point, he said, "on principle."

"They just fixed a road that's about to be completely carpeted with leaves and acorns," Krueger said, standing on the shoulder near Watertown Plank Road with a pocket tape measure. "You've got maybe 30 days where a person can look at that asphalt and say, that's a nice road. Then the maples let go and it's a forest floor with a center line."

"You've got maybe 30 days where a person can look at that asphalt and say, that's a nice road. Then the maples let go and it's a forest floor with a center line."

— Bob Krueger, retired DPW supervisor

Krueger said he has already counted 14 acorns on the new surface, and that the first leaf landed at 7:42 a.m. Thursday, on the northbound shoulder, "which I'm told is a coincidence, but it did not feel like one."

What Residents Are Doing With The Time

Motorists along the corridor said they intend to make the most of the window. Karen Boettcher, 58, who commutes on Lakeland Drive in a 2019 Subaru Outback, said she has begun taking the road "slowly, with the windows down, to really take it in." She said she made three round trips Saturday with no destination.

"It's so quiet," Boettcher said. "You don't hear the road anymore. I know it won't last. Have you seen how many oaks are on that stretch?"

Dale Ptacek, 64, who lives near the Morris Drive end, said he had photographed the new pavement 22 times since Wednesday, mostly at dusk, and had sent the best six to his brother in Tucson. "He said it looks like a road," Ptacek said. "I told him that's the point."

A Second Ceremony?

County Public Works Director Frank Novotny confirmed that no leaf removal is scheduled for the corridor before the first week of November, and said crews would "monitor conditions." Asked whether the repaved section might qualify for a second dedication ceremony next spring, once the surface reappears, Novotny said no such event had been planned or ruled out.

Councilman Gary Puchalski, reached Monday, said he would "look into whether there's a form for that." Krueger, for his part, said he would attend a spring ceremony if invited, and would bring the tape measure. "The road will still be there," he said. "It's just going to have been a while since anybody saw it."