On Monday, August 21, 2006, the US 53 Freeway Ribbon Cutting Ceremony took place in Altoona , WI at the River Prairie Drive Overpass. Frank Laufenberg said that the traffic passing by were honking to show their appreciation for the opening of the bypass. The bypass has reduced drive times throughout the Eau Claire area.

 HCC has been working on the Highway 53 Bypass since the Fall of 2001. There were ten projects that HCC worked on to complete the bypass. The contract amount for these projects totaled over $87 million. Nearly 8.5 million yards of dirt was moved by HCC over the past five years.  The pipe installation was just over 86,000 linear feet.

 Todd Hoehn commented that, "Despite the many changes that occurred at the end of the projects and the flooding in Eau Claire this summer, HCC was able to finish these projects ahead of schedule. This allowed for the opening of the much anticipated bypass to happen nearly 3 weeks early."

 Chad Schwab pointed out that most of the traffic passing by has no idea of the tremendous amount of work that went into the opening of this bypass with large amounts of man hours and equipment costs.

Frank Laufenberg has been running the Eau Claire projects for the last couple of years. He stands next to the open bypass.

Todd Hoehn and Chad Schwab worked to complete the Bypass projects this year.

Traffic Running on the much anticipated Bypass around Eau Claire, WI.