POLITICS

Bumpy ride: an endless quest to fix local roads in Wisconsin

Bill Glauber

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Jeff Polenske is the city engineer in urban, bustling Milwaukee while John Hanz is the highway commissioner in rural, sparsely populated Pepin County.

Separated by more than 250 miles, they are dealing with the same problem — the relentless need to fix, patch and reconstruct local roads during an era when budgets are stretched to the breaking point.

"Approximately 30% of our streets are in poor condition," Polenske said. "The other side of that is 40% are in fair condition and 30% are good."

"My county system is probably a third of it is in good shape, a third of it is adequate. And a third of it needs work to the point of paving," Hanz said.

While the mega projects of state highways and interstates draw a lot of attention from lawmakers, road builders and harried drivers, municipal and county officials remain tightly focused on local roads.

"You take from Green Bay and do an arc down to Fond du Lac through Madison down to the border (with Illinois) and that's where the majority of the money is being spent," Hanz said. "That's where the population is. And you really can't holler too hard, they're the ones paying the most money."

"Do we need all these mega projects vs. maintaining what we have in the rest of the state?" Hanz added. "Look at all the stuff that's 50 years old. They need the work. We need the work to just keep things functional."

John Hanz, Pepin County highway commissioner, crosses County Road Z, which is badly in need of repairs.

Transportation funding is shaping up as the big budget battle in Madison, where Republicans are in charge of state government and don't agree on what to do.

In his budget bill, Gov. Scott Walker proposes using project delays and borrowing to help provide more funding over the next two years for local government projects and close a nearly $1 billion shortfall in the state's road fund.

Assembly Republicans argue that Walker's proposal would get the state through the next two years but not resolve the long-term mismatch between the cost of the projects planned by the state and the stream of money it is collecting to pay for that work.

The state is hit by a double-whammy of aging infrastructure and stagnant gas tax revenue, they say.

Those GOP lawmakers want to see the state increase revenue through a step such as raising the gas tax.
But many Republicans in the Senate oppose raising the gas tax, and Walker has pledged to veto any increase.

That's left Republicans looking at possible compromises among themselves, such as taking more money from the sales or income tax to pay for transportation. That money normally goes to pay for other priorities such as education and health care.

Late last week, there was a tiny bit of good news for those who want to add more cash to state roads when Walker announced he was freeing up $100 million toward transportation projects.

For Polenske and Hanz, the Madison budget battles might as well be a world away. Drive around with them and you can see their problems firsthand.

At the corner of N. Water St. and N. Jackson St. in Milwaukee, Polenske points to the rough road surface that is cracked and rutted. It will eventually be fixed as part of what's known as a high-impact program, where the top 2 inches of pavement are milled off and then resurfaced.

The work is expensive but necessary, about $1 million for 3 miles and will last from seven to 10 years. A full reconstruction costs around $1 million a mile.

"The cracks from the original pavement are starting to resurface," Polenske said. "As long as the base of the roadway is in fair condition, we can fix it."

But that's just one small slice of roadway on a 1,272-mile local system that needs constant attention.

"We're not just pitching out Band-Aids with pothole filling," Polenske said, pointing to a refurbished stretch of N. Holton St., between E. North Av. and E. Locust St.

While some in the business community are focused on pushing the state to move forward with the I-94 east-west freeway reconstruction project between 16th and 70th streets, Polenske said the emphasis should be on maintaining local streets.

"We feel our need on the local street system is greater," he said.

Milwaukee City Engineer Jeff Polenske is charged with keeping deteriorating city streets in shape.

Over in Pepin County's Durand in the northwest part of the state, Hanz and his crew help maintain 155 miles of county trunk highways, 247 miles of town roads and 48 miles of state highways.

Hanz's roads can take a beating from harsh winters and truck traffic, including vehicles hauling thousands of pounds of liquid manure.

On County Road Z, which snakes through rolling farmland, Hanz is trying to figure out what to do with a 6-mile stretch of two-lane road that hasn't been resurfaced in more than 20 years. A full 2,800 feet is badly in need of reconstruction to widen the road and make enough room for a guard rail to prevent cars or trucks from sliding down a wooded hillside.

The entire project would cost around $1 million, he estimated.

"And we don't have that kind of money," he said.

The need for cash, and hard decisions on what to do with roads, isn't confined to just Milwaukee or Durand.

In the Trempeleau County town of Chimney Rock, about 7 miles of paved roads have been turned back to gravel since 2010, said Town Chairman Gerald Hawkenson. Another mile is due to be converted to gravel this spring, he said, since the town is unable to afford to widen and upgrade the road.

"What do I need? More money," Hawkenson said. "That's what it boils down too. There are a lot of townships going back to gravel."

South Milwaukee Mayor Erik Brooks said upgrades are needed on Nicholson Ave. south of E. Rawson Aev. to E. Drexel Ave. But he doesn't know where the city will get the funds, especially with tight budgets at the state level.

"Seeing just the struggles they're having for the big ones, the interstates. we'll have to get in line," Brooks said of state funding. "That's a long, long line."

In La Crosse County, despite objections from business leaders, voters earlier this month approved an advisory referendum to establish a 0.5% premier resort area tax to deal with $87 million in deferred maintenance for roads and bridges. The Legislature and governor would still have to sign off on the measure before the County Board and voters would be asked for final approval.

But the passage of the advisory referendum by a margin of 55% to 45% showed that roads remain a hot topic for the voters.

"It's kind of, desperate times call for desperate measures," said La Crosse County Board Chair Tara Johnson, who backed the initiative.

"The state has left all counties in the lurch," she said. "They've left local municipalities in the lurch in terms of road funding. It's Wisconsin. We have bad weather for roads, and our roads are just in terrible condition."

Reporter Jason Stein contributed to this article.