I90/94 eastbound wisconsin river rest area
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Located in the rest area near wisconsin river on the east bound
side. Hopefully we can keep this one up and going thru the whole
construction project BUT PLEASE BEWARE OF CONSTRUCTION VEHICLES,
CARS AND TRUCKS while looking for this cache. You are looking for a
small pill bottle. Should be a quick find while taking a break from
your travels.
This rest area and the one across the highway are going thru a
nearly $22 million renovations - paid for with 90 percent federal
funds and 10 percent state money - will result in a larger
building, a more spacious parking lot and a vast increase in the
number of restroom fixtures at rest areas No. 11 (eastbound) and 12
(westbound), located just south of Portage. "These will be the
largest rest areas we've ever built in Wisconsin and they're going
to remain open most of the time during the two years they'll be
under construction," he said. The project started earlier this
month, and the scheduled completion date is late October or early
November 2010. Some of the changes planned include: • Tearing down
the existing buildings and replacing them with Frank Lloyd Wright
style-structures that will include interior lobby with bench
seating, new racks for travel information brochures and a tall
clock featuring a cutout in the shape of Wisconsin. The existing
buildings are about 1,700 square feet, Simon said. The new ones
will be about 9,000 square feet. • Additional parking spaces,
especially for trucks. The size of the truck lots will increase
from about 25 spaces apiece to about 68. • Nearly double the number
of toilet fixtures in both the men's and women's restrooms. "In the
summer, we have long lines for the bathrooms," sometimes resulting
in a need to bring in portable toilets - a need that the new
construction is intended to alleviate, Simon said. • The addition
of a "family assisted" restroom, mainly for situations such as
older couples accustomed to assisting each other in the restroom,
or mothers of little boys who don't feel comfortable either sending
their sons to the men's room alone or bringing them into the
women's room. There also will be diaper changing stations in both
the men's and women's restrooms. All this is needed, Simon said,
because the two rest areas are, by far, the busiest in Wisconsin,
largely because they're located in an area where three different
interstate highways converge. Out of every 100 vehicles that drives
past either rest area, between eight and 12 will stop, he said.
Those that stop during the construction will rarely be turned away,
according to Yahnke. Plans call for no more than nine total days
when either the parking lots or buildings will be closed. To make
that happen, Simon said, the work will be done in phases. The first
thing to be built at each rest area will be the new truck lot, to
be completed sometime in early 2009. When that's done, trucks and
cars will be routed to the new truck lots so the car lots can be
rebuilt - meaning some users will have a longer-than-usual walk
from the parking area to the building. Temporary concrete barriers
will be set up to ensure the safety of pedestrians during the time
when the truck and car lots are combined, Simon said. When the new
buildings are completed, they will be opened and the old ones torn
down. Simon said there might be a few days during the construction
when neither structure is open, to allow for the transition. Simon
said several features of the new buildings are designed for energy
efficiency. For example, the two buildings will have identical
designs, but both will have the side with the most windows facing
southwest to capture more natural heat and light for the lobby. For
that reason, the structures will look different from the road,
depending on which direction a traveler is going, Simon said. To
further differentiate the buildings on opposite sides of the
interstate, they'll have different color roofs - one burgundy, one
green.
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