Highway Expansion Rampant in Wisconsin, Which “Can’t Afford” Rail

Blog readers have been sending in examples of state highway projects that appear bloated, unneeded or politically-inspired. They are sending me these reminders after I noted the $1.36 billion in major state highway project cost overruns enumerated by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation itself, and I had wondered if such indefensible road-building expenditures would come to the attention of Scott Walker's new commission on fraud, waste and abuse. For example, does Burlington, WI, a city of 10,000, really need a 11-mile, $100 million highway bypass?

A reader reminded me also about the Interchange to Nowhere off I-94 where the Pabst Farms mall has been canceled, and another reader jogged my memory about the widening of State Highway 23 as ordered by the legislature -- (and one of its main backers also opposed the Madison-Milwaukee train: isn't earmarking and dedicated funding oh, so situational?) -- and not through broader state highway planning processes.

And can Wisconsin afford the remaining bulk of the Southeastern Wisconsin Freeway Reconstruction and Expansion plan? The state completed the $810 million Marquette Interchange project, and is partially-done with the $1.9 billion I-94 North-South leg from Milwaukee to the Illinois State line. But not yet begun or funded as more efficient vehicles and diminished driving cut gas tax collections -- $3.8 billion on various system pieces, across seven counties, of I-94, I-43, I-894 and State Highway 45.

Highway excesses... is Walker interested?