Waukesha crews finally able to repair road signs damaged by Old Man Winter

WAUKESHA COUNTY (WITI) -- If you're searching for a sure-fire sign of spring -- you can look no further than the signs themselves! The weather has finally allowed Waukesha Public Works crews to start working on replacing and repairing road signs damaged by Old Man Winter.

Mike Glatczak with Waukesha County DPW works to repair road signs throughout the northern portion of Waukesha County. Normally, he works by himself, but because his truck was in the shop, Thursday, April 17th was a rare day the man had a partner on the job.

"When you're fighting that four-by-six (pole) out of the ground by yourself, it's a lot longer! You hit it with a sledgehammer. You take the pry-bar along the wooden post, wiggle the ground a little bit," Glatczak said.

FOX6 News caught up with Glatczak and his partner near I-94 and Highway P on Thursday as they addressed the dozens of signs winter has affected. Glatczak estimates it's 30% worse this year than what he's seen in 15 years of doing this work.

Glatczak says Waukesha County is currently removing damaged wooden posts as it switches to metal -- which he says is an easier material to both install and uninstall.

"Replacing it with metal is making it a lot easier for us to replace it the next time around," Glatczak said.

That's because the post itself can be utilized as a ground-thawing chemical conveyance.

"You can get the chemicals down the solid of the tube and it spreads out a lot easier, so you can get them out a lot quicker," Glatczak said.

Glatczak says another advantage of the metal posts involves the holes themselves, which he says he uses to sight the sign so that oncoming traffic has the best perspective of the information that is being displayed.