Tag Archives: WisDOT

WisDOT’s new Zoo Interchange plan includes expansion; hearings scheduled

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The Wisconsin Department of Transportation will hold a hearing March 22 and March 23 on one of those things Gov. Scott Walker thinks is more important than education or transit — a bigger Zoo Interchange.

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).

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.

Highway spending vs rail spending — the graphic

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This Wisconsin Department of Transportation graphic says it all, doesn’t it? The top line is how much the department spent on highway construction over time; the line with the big jump where high-speed rail was supposed to go represents how much WisDOT spent on rail over the same time period.

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.

WisDOT finally follows law, takes on a few invasives

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Years after deciding to simply let invasive plants run wild along thousands of miles of state highway rights-of-way, Wisconsin Department of Transportation officials have formally acknowledged responsibility for  controlling the economically and environmentally damaging species.

“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.

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.