Memorial Day 2018 Travel: The Good News And The Bad News

WISCONSIN — More than 733,000 Wisconsin residents will be on the road between Friday and Monday over the 2018 Memorial Day weekend, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation says.

First, the good news: The DOT is accomodating the busy traffic for Memorial Day Weekend by temporarily halting construction work on many of their highway projects across the state. Construction in most highway work zones will stop by 12 p.m. on Friday and will resume at 6 a.m. the Tuesday after Memorial Day.

Peak travel times for the holiday weekend are expected to occur between 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. on both Friday and Memorial Day, so be sure to plan ahead.

And now, the bad news: Motorists who will be forced to fill up during the weekend will be paying the highest gas prices in the last four years. AAA Wisconsin says the average price of a gallon of gas reached $2.72 last month. That's about 33 cents higher when compared to last year.

And finally, police will be out in force: On Friday at 5 p.m., as part of an OWI Task Force deployment, the West Milwaukee Police Department will be hosting a “Street Corner Roll Call." The roll call symbolizes multiple law enforcement agencies from Milwaukee and Waukesha Counties who will form a cohesive effort to combat impaired driving over the weekend.

Currently, there are 38 law enforcement agencies that coordinate and participate in various OWI task force deployments on specific dates like this one all over Southeast Wisconsin, authorities say. Their message is clear: “We will stop, test, arrest, and lockup as many impaired drivers as necessary to prevent needless crashes, injuries and deaths on our roadways.”

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