Watertown leaders, businesses blindsided as vital bridge replacement is several months behind schedule

 

WATERTOWN, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Bismarck's Main Street Bar is struggling, and it's because Main Street here currently doesn't look like much of a Main Street. 

Co-owner Craig Perschke said a lack of traffic has stifled business at the restaurant.

"Fridays are just a glimpse of what they used to be," he said. "Saturdays are half of what they used to be."

There's no traffic because the bridge that carries Main through the heart of downtown Watertown has been out since last fall. The city received $2 million to replace the bridge as part of the current two-year state budget, and the project is scheduled to be completed on Nov. 27.

Mayor Emily McFarland said, until last week, she hadn't received any official word of delays holding up the project. She said in weekly meetings with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) and the contractor hired to do it, Waukesha-based Zenith Tech Inc., nobody ever told the city there were issues beneath the surface.

"As those meetings unfolded, it was, 'We have no recognized delay to the project,'" she said.

However, McFarland said city leaders and downtown business owners became worried in recent weeks as work appeared to slow down at the bridge site. With two months left before the project deadline, it had become obvious to everyone a bridge wasn't going to be in place by late November.

"I am not an engineer or a bridge builder, but I think anyone could see that the bridge probably wasn't on the time track that was being committed to," McFarland said.

So, city officials called a meeting last Friday with WisDOT and the contractor. McFarland said it was only then both the state and builder admitted they'd been involved in a dispute since May over how the bridge should be rebuilt, and construction now was expected to last until next summer.

McFarland said the issue is the original bridge, built in 1931, was connected to buildings that still stand along the water's edge. While workers were able to successfully decouple the bridge from those structures, McFarland said there was a dispute over how a new bridge could be safely built without disturbing the buildings. 

State Sen. John Jagler (R-Watertown) said by phone Tuesday the contractor pushed back on designs crafted by WisDOT, and that disagreement continued for several months. 

"I asked the DOT what the plan was," McFarland said. "On Friday afternoon, I said, 'So, what was the plan? Was Nov. 27 just going to come and go, and oops, the bridge isn't done?'"

Michael Bie, a spokesman for WisDOT's Southwest Region, confirmed in a statement Tuesday the project calls for a new bridge to open by Nov. 27, and there have been weekly meetings between the agency, the contractor and the city since May.

"The contractor has stated the project will not be complete until early summer 2025," Bie wrote. "As outlined in the contract, if the interim completion date is not met the contractor will be assessed liquidated damages of $2,185 each calendar day."

Bie said WisDOT is working with Zenith Tech to shorten the construction timeline, and those talks include bringing in more equipment and workers to speed up construction. The statement did not acknowledge whether a dispute between WisDOT and the contractor is holding up the project.

A spokesperson for Walbec Group, which owns Zenith Tech, did not provide a response to questions as of late Tuesday night. Jagler said the bridge now might not open until July.

"I'm not accepting that," McFarland said of a July opening. "And I said that [Friday] as clear as day."

The Blue Butterfly thrift store has seen a steep decline in foot traffic since the Main Street bridge closed for reconstruction.

Bad timing for businesses

Jody Purtell, director of the Watertown Main Street Program, said a delay keeping the bridge closed throughout December would be especially devasting for many of the businesses near the bridge.

"Just so much that we do for the winter holiday and the shopping and everything is our whole downtown district," Purtell said.

Ashley Wenninger confirmed that's the case for the Blue Butterfly thrift store she manages. Wenninger said the shop, which is at the ground level of one of the buildings previously connected to the bridge, sees its most sales in October, November and December.

The store, which is run by nonprofits and recently added mental health counseling services, is inaccessible from the front. Where there had once been a sidewalk along the bridge is now a straight drop into the Rock River. Wenninger said Blue Butterfly is still working to let people know the store is accessible from the back.

"Not having that foot traffic in the front, we have seen a challenge," she said. "It was definitely a challenge, being so new, to continue to get people to see us and notice us."

While Wenninger is hopeful the Blue Butterfly will rebound, Perschke said it's too late for Bismarck's. At least on his watch.

"Already put the place up for sale," he said. "I don't like saying that, but I don't have any choice."

Perschke said he's tried pulling out all the stops, including an any-burger-for-$10 deal on Tuesdays, but the sales just aren't there. He was hopeful the bridge reopening in late November would bring a surge of traffic after the community's Nov. 30 Christmas Parade of Lights.

"It used to be we'd have parades go by here and everything else. That's not happening right now," he said. "And this year will be the second year of our Christmas parade that'll be canceled down in this area, which would bring in one of my biggest nights of the year."

Perschke said he's at peace with the decision to sell Bismarck's; he was already eyeing retirement. However, he said he's still worried about the other business owners near the bridge who hoped to ride out the closure for just a couple more months.

"It's negatively impacting the whole town," he said.