Hoan Bridge will be lit orange for National Work Zone Awareness Week; workers describe close calls with crashes as I-94 construction continues
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) – On April 21, the same orange you see on the construction barrels along I-94 will light up the Hoan Bridge in Milwaukee.
Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association (WTBA) and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) want drivers to slow down, pay attention, and respect the men and women working on highway projects across the state during National Work Zone Awareness Week.
"Orange is the color of the day,” said Stebe Baas, the executive director of WTBA. “Behind every flashing light in a work zone is a person who wants to get home to their families.”
While lighting the bridge is a celebration of hard work, it has a heavy reminder. According to WTBA, seven people were killed and 623 injured in Wisconsin work zone crashes in 2025.
Two of the prime contractors on two portions of the I-94 East-West project shared instances of people driving recklessly near the construction areas.
“Just last week, we had a crew member that got struck by a vehicle in a work zone. He was out there looking at the job site ahead of time. There should have been one-way traffic, this vehicle came where he shouldn’t have been coming from,” said Chad Shihata, a senior project manager with Zenith Tech, Inc. "It just highlights that this person ignored the signs, the barricades, and got into a space where they shouldn’t have been.”
WTBA is urging people to drive with caution through the I-94 work zone and any of the more than 400 projects across the state this year.