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wisdots-ghani-weathers-the-storm
1. WisDOT’s Ghani weathers the storm in Wisconsin
By: Jessica Stephen, Special to The Daily Reporter July 21, 2016 1:26 pm
Eyad Ghani (Staff photo by Kevin Harnack)
The weather doesn’t fool him anymore.
But that first season in Wisconsin, the summer of 1981, Eyad Ghani was blissfully unaware.
“We didn’t have the Internet back then, and I came here and said, ‘Wow, they have nice weather here.’ And, then,
the winter of 1982, I got the shock of my life,” said Ghani, a project manager with the state Department of
Transportation.
That winter saw regular flirtations with temperatures well-below zero, including the infamous coldest day ever in
Wisconsin — also known as Jan. 17, 1982 — when the mercury plummeted to 26 degrees below zero.
It was a memorable introduction to the state, especially for a newly minted engineer on track to participate in some
of the biggest road projects this state has ever seen.
And yet it didn’t dissuade him from ultimately settling in the Milwaukee area, a home he adopted after British Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher unknowingly derailed his plans to study in England.
“In 1980 she tripled foreign student tuition,” said Ghani, who is from Palestine. “I couldn’t afford it anymore and
went back to the Middle East and worked in a book store until I could apply to Milwaukee.”
He studied structural engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee before taking a job in (warmer and
sunnier) California, where he worked with the California Department of Transportation in and around San Francisco
for 11 years.
It was a career he chose almost by default.
“Back where I grew up, parents drill it into your head that you either want to be an engineer, a doctor or a lawyer.
And both of my older brothers were engineers,” Ghani said.
He considered law.
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2. “But I liked math and I liked building things. I like the whole concept of developing a project, a plan, an idea.
Putting it on paper and then seeing people using it,” he said.
The choice eventually led him back to Wisconsin, where he joined WisDOT in December 2014.
“It’s a journey,” Ghani said.
One he was able to take, in part, because of support from his wife, a Shorewood native, and two children, as well
as his mother, Ameera.
“I feel that who I am and who I became — and I’m satisfied with where I am right now — I owe a lot of it to my
mother, who passed away this past December,” Ghani said. “She always encouraged me. She was my biggest
supporter and backer. She always gave me advice. And when I made mistakes she would never scold me; she
would always advise me.”
It’s that spirit of encouragement that’s helped ground him as a project engineer for the recent Watertown Plank
Road interchange construction, part of the larger Zoo Interchange project.
“You have a lot of different players and a lot of different people who want something out of a project like this. All
these things you have to balance. The challenging part is you don’t get consensus. You get, ‘OK, we understand.
This has to be done, and it’s going to impact us this way and we have to get this done.’”
If only the weather would cooperate.
The Daily Reporter: What surprises you most about your work?
Eyad Ghani: What surprises me is dealing with the public. Maybe it’s the pace? Maybe it’s personal preference? But
you’re showing them the same thing, and one person is completely against it and another person is completely
supportive. It’s that reaction that surprises me.
TDR: What would you change about the construction industry?
Ghani: I think maybe because I’ve been to the Middle East quite a bit and there’s a lot of huge projects going on
over there — technology is embedded in what they do — I understand that’s expensive, but I would like to see that
in Wisconsin. We’re inching toward that, but more, maybe, drones that can be used to oversee the progress of a
project real-time or maybe the safety aspect?
TDR: What other job did you consider trying?
Ghani: I considered law. It’s just a fascinating field, and we deal with it all the time in the transportation industry,
the construction industry. Maybe there’s still time.
TDR: What profession would you not like to explore?
Ghani: I would not be a restaurant owner. If you’re successful you make a lot of money. But that’s difficult for me
to see. But my wife is starting a little baking business from home; she makes Middle Eastern bakery.
TDR: What’s the last movie you saw?
Ghani: We saw the ‘Jungle Book.’ I took my son and my wife to see it. My wife didn’t know anything about it and
my son saw it when he was a kid. It was 3-D. I know it’s a kid’s movie, but I enjoyed it.
TDR: What would you never wear?
Ghani: I don’t really have anything. The obvious stuff? I wouldn’t wear a dress. I wouldn’t wear Speedos.
TDR: If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Ghani: I would probably help more around the house. I would maybe also do away with some procrastination.
TDR: What would your colleagues be surprised to find out about you?
Ghani: I was a mean disco dancer back in the late ’70s. To look at me now you’d never know. I hear it’s coming
back though.
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