Tag Archives: Freeways

Walker: heading into the transportation funding abyss?

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Is Gov. Walker’s road-building binge going to keep Wisconsin mired in the budgetary blues?

His proposals to charge ahead with freeway creation and expansion all over the state never did make much economic sense — hey, gov, the economy will not be helped if trucks can get between cities on new freeways, but break their axles on ruined local roads — but they seem less and less reasonable when the federal highway trust fund is considered. Congress just can’t get a deal done on funding, which means that state taxpayers may end up funding more of the road binge than Walker and his gang are letting on.

From the Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON—A six-year $556 billion highway and transit construction program proposed by President Barack Obama is the latest casualty of Washington’s spending stalemate.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.), who is leading talks on the issue, said Wednesday she is now considering a two-year measure that would freeze federal spending on road, bridge and transit projects at existing levels.

The White House had called for a six-year infrastructure bill in his fiscal 2012 budget in part as a measure to create jobs and boost the economy. But lawmakers haven’t agreed on how to pay for the bill, amid a broader debate over how to slash federal spending.

Ms. Boxer, the chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said “funding challenges” could require a two-year, $109 billion bill setting funding at existing levels plus inflation. The bulk, if not all, of the funding for such a bill would come from the federal gasoline tax. Lawmakers would still need to plug a $12 billion shortfall under that bill, because gas-tax revenue is falling.

The Walker budget — part 3

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Holy payback! Gov. Scott Walker wants a 68% debt service increase to pay back transportation debt!

That’s an amazing increase and is even 21% more than the Wisconsin Department of Transportation asked for!

In FY10 and FY11, WisDOT will pay about $151.3 million in debt service; the agency asked for $287.1 million for 2012 and 2013; and Walker is recommending an astonishing $346 million.

Walker’s proposal is $194.6 million more than the 2010-11 figure and $58.9 million more than WisDOT sought.

Why this big increase? We don’t know. Walker’s proposed budget doesn’t tell us other than to say there is a re-estimate. For what? By whom? Yes, he is up to his old county tricks of withholding important information from the public footing the bill.

And Walker is pumping money into big road and unnecessary freeway expansion projects — the Zoo Interchange and North-South I-94 here in Milwaukee County — while cutting transit, local road aids and the money the state pays counties to take care of state roads. Transit, under Walker’s proposal, will move to the general fund, where it will compete for resources with education and social services, which Walker is also cutting. He also proposes to grab a share of sales tax revenue, which traditionally funded things like education and social services — and use it for transportation instead.

Who needs decent schools at a time of increasing global academic competitiveness when you can have wider roads in a time of declining oil resources instead?

Maybe all this laying of concrete is Walker’s tribute to himself: cement head, cement state.

Common sense means repaving, not widening, for I-94

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Its ability to function under a growing burden of declining revenue and increasing debt service, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation is opting to repave I-94 in Milwaukee County rather than rebuild and expand it, as fiscally irresponsible legislators want to do.

It’s nice to see WisDOT to finally, finally recognize that the money for its boondoggle roadie fantasies is just not there and that wider freeways that won’t help ease congestion should not be a priority.

Repaving will give the freeway another 12 to 15 years of life, according to The Daily Reporter (registration required):

“Right now, we went with rehab because the underlying pavement is still in good enough condition we can utilize that,” WisDOT official Robert Gutierrez said. “It’s just more cost-effective to do it one more time this way.”

Gutierrez said that when the repaving job’s life is over, the state will consider reconstructing or replacing the interstate. Replacing? With what? Hmmm, it would be nice to see some possible alternatives.

A  representative of the paving industry disagrees with the decision to repave and says the freeway will need to be reconstructed some day.

Of course, this decision to repave was made under Gov. Jim Doyle, not under Gov. Scott Walker. Walker is owned by the road industry, so common sense may be in short supply in the coming years.

One bidder for the Zoo Interchange? Rethink the bid criteria

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In this economy, getting just one bid on a multi-million dollar project likely means your bid criteria stink.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation solicited bids for the $12 million to $22 million Zoo Interchange bridge repair project and got exactly one bid — from Milwaukee Constructors LLC, which is made up of Edward Kraemer & Sons Inc.; Lunda Construction Co.; and Zenith Tech Inc., the same folks who brought you the bulk of the Marquette Interchange, according to the Daily Reporter.

But just one bid? When construction firms are dying for work?Is WisDOT kidding?

Barrett on stimulus money: fix the potholes

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Mayor Tom Barrett on stimulus funding:

“People in this city are much, much more interested in seeing potholes and local streets repaired than expanding Interstate systems…That’s a message we have to deliver both to the state and the federal governments. There has to be a basic realignment of spending priorities.