Investment in infrastructure long overdue
By Julian Emerson, Wisconsin Farmers Union communications sqecialist
Highway commissioners in counties across Wisconsin, report that keeping up with fixes to roads is becoming more challenging, as revenue for those improvements is far outpaced by the rising price of that work. Substandard bridges are especially problematic in Wisconsin.
The state department of transportation rates 980 bridges across the state, as structurally deficient, meaning one or more bridge elements is significantly deteriorated.
The gap between allowable road and bridge repair funding, and the price tag of improvements has become especially acute in recent years, and is exacerbated by price spikes, attributed, in part, to supply chain issues prompted by the coronavirus pandemic. Local governments in Wisconsin, are limited as to how much revenue they can raise, by a state revenue cap.
To generate additional road repair funds, some counties have adopted a vehicle registration tax, commonly referred to as a “wheel tax,” with money raised used for road repairs and snowplowing. Many counties borrow money to keep pace with road maintenance, as those dollars are exempt from the revenue cap. However, that practice means more money is spent paying off debt, leaving less for services and programs.
“No matter what we do, it doesn’t feel like we can keep up,” said Chippewa County Highway commissioner Brian Kelly.
The infrastructure bill approved by Congress in November 2021, will provide a much-needed boost to upgrade roads and bridges. As part of the legislation, Wisconsin is projected to receive $5.5 billion during the next five years, to update not only roads and bridges, but for mass transit improvements, lead pipe removal, stormwater controls and PFAS abatement.
Those dollars are welcome news to county highway commissioners, who said any additional infrastructure funding will help stretch existing dollars that don’t go far enough.
The first round of funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) for Wisconsin road and bridge projects, was announced earlier this summer, and applications for the second round were recently received and are scheduled to be announced in July.
Chippewa County received nearly $1 million in the first round of BIL money, to reconstruct a section of Highway C. Roads and bridges in Chippewa County, will receive additional help from $8 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding in upcoming years.
Such federal and state infrastructure money is critical to catching up on past-due road repairs, Kelly said, noting the current funding level allows for repairing 10 miles annually, about half of what is needed.
While BIL, and other federal and state highway spending will provide much-needed dollars, for road and bridge maintenance, work remains to find a long-term solution to improving infrastructure funding across Wisconsin. The fact that requests for BIL dollars far outnumber projects granted those dollars, is a sign of the extreme need for such funding.
In the first round of BIL funding in Wisconsin, 40 projects of 306 applicants were chosen to receive funding.
Maintaining roads and bridges has become even more difficult in recent months, as price spikes for materials and challenges finding enough available labor, make each mile of road repairs increasingly expensive. Highway commissioners across the state, said the price of asphalt and other construction-related costs have grown over time, and skyrocketed in recent months, with many paying 35 percent or more this year, compared to just one year ago.
While BIL money will help boost needed road and bridge improvements for the next several years, more must be done to address infrastructure funding statewide, on an ongoing basis.
“For sure, I worry about that, how are we going to pay for our roads going forward?” said Ashland County Highway commissioner Matt Erickson. “As you look into the future, we will have a huge shortfall in that area. And right now, we don’t have any answers.”
