SUAMICO, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – People heading north ran into traffic trouble in Brown County Friday afternoon.
No one was hurt, but a tipped-over backhoe on Highway 41 caused a backup for more than three miles for about three hours. It happened near the Sunset Beach Road exit in Suamico at about 7 a.m.
“We’re lucky nobody got hurt out here,” said Matt Ternes, the DOT’s project manager.
The backhoe is part of a highway resurfacing project happening from Lineville Road to just south of the Brown County line.
“The incident occurred as the operator was lifting a temporary traffic barrier, and we are working to determine what led to the incident,” said Susan Strand in a statement. Strand is a spokesperson for Zenith Tech, a company working on the project.
“The backhoe probably just reached a little bit too far and it ended up tipping over,” said Ternes.
The DOT says traffic didn’t start backing up until noon, several hours after the backhoe tipped over. Ternes believes that is because that’s when traffic normally picks up on a Friday.
“It’s not every day you see a backhoe tipped over so people tend to slow down in a work zone, to begin with so anything that is out of the norm just increases that,” said Ternes.
Extra holiday travelers didn’t help either. Luckily for some, they just avoided any delay.
“Sometimes timing is everything, so glad that’s cleaned up and hopefully it should be smooth sailing the rest of the way,” said Greg Mcquillan, who was traveling with his family from Wauwatosa to Marquette, Michigan.
The incident isn’t expected to delay the resurfacing work. It’s expected to be complete in mid-November.
