JEFFERSON – Jefferson County Highway Department workers on I-94 may soon find themselves working with double hazard pay, per a Sept. 15 Finance Committee meeting.
This Tuesday, Highway Commissioner Sean Heaslip appeared for his department’s 2027 budget hearing. One of the first items discussed for his department by Jefferson County Administrator Michael Luckey was a proposed change in hazard pay for certain highways.
“For state-funded projects on I-94, there is a current hazard pay,” said Luckey. “There have been some recent incidents on I-94. They're implementing additional work there, but operationally, having people work on I-94 is much more difficult than (WI-26). Sean is going to be requesting and would like to work through the process of upping that hazard pay to 10% for I-94, versus 5%.”
Heaslip explained the change in conditions that warranted the adjusted hazard pay. He added that the pay would not come out of the county’s pocket.
“(When) we established hazard pay 15 years ago, I-94 was 65 miles an hour,” said Heaslip. “Now it's 70. The traffic count on 26 is about 14,000-15,000 cars a day, where the interstate's anywhere from 30,000-45,000 cars a day.
“Most of our acciden...