‘Good luck everybody’: Preparations begin for potential I-94 traffic nightmare 

WEST ALLIS, Wis (CBS 58) - Construction on the Interstate 94 east-west project starts on Monday Oct. 27. 

Road closures and interchange closures will shortly follow, along 3.5 miles of I-94. 

The project will transform the interstate and is expected to be complete in 2032.

“I hope I’m dead by the time they rip it up ha ha ha,” Milwaukee resident Susan Reinhard said.  “I don’t want to sit crawling at 20 miles per hour for an hour just to get past the stadium, so good luck everybody.”

Part of the Hawley Rd. interchange will be permanently removed after the construction is complete. 

The exit ramp going west bound out of the city on Hawley Rd. will be part of that removal. 

“I don’t know how those people are going to get out of the city every night,” Reinhard said. 

Barbiere’s Italian Restaurant has been on Hawley and Bluemound since 1973, and the owners have some concerns about the project. 

“We have lived through Bluemound being re-done already so we know that was not very good for our business because the accessibility was just so hard,” Barbiere’s co-owner Steve Thalman said. "That's really what we’re worried about is that our regulars and our people that love our food stay away or think twice because of these closures that are coming.”

The owners are already planning on running specials to get more people in the door. 

“Any little bit of scraps that we can give our customers to give them incentive to come to us is going to be important,” Thalman said.  “I think this is going to be a little dicey for small businesses.”

Thalman says he believes more traffic could come to Bluemound because of the interstate being busy but says that’s not necessarily the best thing for business. 

“Traffic is not necessarily good for a restaurant like us because we have a lot of regulars,” Thalman said. “Here we go, strap on and let’s see what happens.”

Despite concerns, there is optimism that the project is best for the long-term outlook of the area. 

“We’re optimistic about it though, and maybe this big change that's going to be coming over the next 8 years is going to be good for the city,” Barbiere’s co-owner Christina Perkins said.