Smoother drive to come: Road construction hits Milwaukee's east side

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- Cruising along Prospect and Farwell isn't a real pleasant drive, especially for Kelly Weckwerth who rides a moped.

"I have to swerve around a lot to not hit a pothole so its kind of scary sometimes," said Weckwerth.

But that's about to change.

The Milwaukee Department of Public Works is repaving North Prospect Avenue from East Kilbourn Avenue to East Ogden Street, and North Farwell Avenue from East Brady Street to North Prospect Avenue.

"The roads took a beating this past winter as I think a lot of us know and what we're doing is just grinding off 2 inches of asphalt and then laying 2 inches of fresh asphalt on these roads," said Milwaukee DPW Communications Manager Sandy Rusch Walton.

There is no parking allowed in the areas of construction and you may run into some detours.

"There will always be one lane of traffic going southbound on Farwell. On Prospect, depending on which side of the street they're working on east or west it will be that lane going in that direction. So you might have to be detoured off of Prospect during the project," said Rusch Walton.

This effort is part of the DPW's High Impact Repaving Project, which will extend the life of these roads by 7 - 10 years.

"It's going to be a smooth ride. If you've been on our other projects Brady Street, Holly Road, Holton, Humboldt you'll notice the great big difference," said Rusch Walton.

Construction is expected to take four days depending on the weather, but in the mean time you'll need to plan your trips accordingly.

The Milwaukee DPW plans to begin working on repaving Jefferson Street between Michigan and Wells on Friday.