WisDOT has revised its proposal for the Interchange, reducing the estimated price tag from$1.9 billion to a mere $1.7 billion, plus about $65 million for alterations to nearby streets. (Earlier estimates put reconstruction and expansion costs at up to $2.3 billion — WisDOT doesn’t explain how the projected cost dropped by $400 million.)

The new plan, called the Reduced Impact Alternative, includes freeway expansion. From the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement:

While an 8-lane Reduced Impacts Alternative would result in less efficient traffic operations (and increased congestion) through the design year than any of the previously-developed Modernization Alternatives, the reduction is not significant (see Section 3.3). A 6-lane version of this alternative would not provide acceptable traffic operations (delay, level of service), and therefore is not offered as a reasonable alternative.

Under the old plans, WisDOT would need to acquire 6 to 32 residences for reconstruction and expansion. The revised plan calls for the acquisition of eight homes, in the form of one multi-family apartment building three businesses. The work on nearby streets would lead to the acquisition of one commercial building containing two businesses, according to WisDOT documents.

The new plan greatly reduces the impacts around 84th St.

The old plans are still included in WisDOT’s alternatives for reconstruction, but it’s pretty clear which road the agency is traveling down.

The hearings on the new plan will be on March 22, 2011, 2-7 p.m. and March 23, 2011, 4-8 p.m. at State Fair Park, Tommy Thompson Youth Center, gate 5, 640 S. 84th St., West Allis (Milwaukee County Transit System Route 67).

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.

The 2010 and 2011 amounts are budgeted figures.

A new slogan for Gov. Scott Walker — “Mono-modal: the only way to go.”

Click on the picture to make it larger.

“Even during times of inadequate funding, the department has a stewardship responsibility to prevent serious environmental consequences resulting from the establishment of large populations of species that are identified as having the potential to become invasive,” according to a new section of the state’s Highway Maintenance Manual.

The funding available, however, will determine how fully WisDOT accepts its responsibility, according to the manual.  WisDOT’s top priorities are few  — Canadian thistle, leavy spurge and field bindweed — which state law requires be destroyed on state highways,  according to the new language, adopted in the spring.

State law defines two other plants, purple loosestrife and multiflora rose, to be nuisance weeds, according to the manual.

“While this designation does not require that these plants be destroyed, the department should cooperate and coordinate with other agency or individual requests to control these plants at specific sites,” the document says.

WisDOT will implement additional measures to control other invasives as required by a new Department of Natural Resources rule, the manual said.

While non-chemical control methods are best, the manual said, the best short-term option sometimes is herbicide.

“Regardless of the size of the infestation or the species involved, do not attempt to control weeds when the adjacent landowner is not controlling the same species on his land,” the manual said.

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.

“If we massively subsidize roads made of concrete and asphalt for people who drive cars and trucks, there’s nothing wrong with a comparable subsidy for roads made of steel rails for people who ride trains.”

These are the concluding words of a op-ed by David R. Riemer, director of the Community Advocates Public Policy Institute at Community Advocates Inc. You know those roads? They’re heavily subsidized (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, April 3, 2010)

The following graphs were built from Riemer’s Excel spreadsheet and from Wisconsin Department of Transportation data: State Transportation Data

SOURCE

The source of Road funds – by percentage:

58.2% of Road funds come from the use of motorized vehicles: Fuel, Registration, Title, Fees.

41.4% of Road funds come from your Income, Property, and Sales taxes.

EXPENSE

How are Road funds spent?

92% of State transportation revenues are spent on roads.

Mass Transit receives 4.42 %

Railroads, Harbors, Airports receive 3.36%

The proposed Milwaukee to Madison Rail line would get 0.21% of State Transportation Funds..

In dollars:

For every $10 WisDOT spends on roads:

$9.20 goes to roads

44 cents goes to Mass Transit operations

34 cents goes to Rail, Harbors and Airport

2 cents would go to the operation of the Madison-Milwaukee high speed rail.

THE ROAD USER

We all use roads.

Car and truck drivers pay for roads with gasoline taxes and fees.

When a product is delivered the price includes the fuel and registration fees of the truck, and those fees are paid by you and me, the buyer.

And so everyone uses and pays for roads. While drivers pay per mile through gasoline taxes, their ride is subsidized by the rest of us.

CONSIDERATIONS FOR CHANGE

Consider other common services: water, sewer, gas, telephone, and electricity. For these we charge closer to cost because we have meters in each house to calculate real usage.

As Riemer points out: “For the most part … we don’t sock it to the taxpayers to subsidize the users of these equally essential services. Rather, the users of those services pay, more-or-less, for 100% of the cost.”

All transportation is subsidized. From the sidewalk to the airport, an effective government will provide the infrastructure that serves all citizens. An effective government will remove barriers to accessing jobs, schools, hospitals, recreation, and commerce.

To serve taxpayers who should not drive do not drive, cannot drive, or do not want to drive, we need transportation policy that brings the benefits of mobility to all citizens.

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?

Even WisDOT recognizes that, and then says it wants to destroy part of it.

More here.

The hearings will be from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday (June 23) and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. (Wednesday, June 24). Both will be conducted at the Tommy Thompson Youth Center at State Fair Park Gate #5, 640 S. 84th Street in West Allis.

More here.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation itself says the interchange would harm efforts to redevelop older commercial areas of Milwaukee.

Not a single peep in protest from Milwaukee Dems.

More here.