Fix-it-First – State Highway Program Analysis
It is basic common sense to protect existing investments. In the case of our transportation system, that means fix-it-first. We must fix our existing roads before we add new ones or new capacity. Looking at data of how money within the State Highway Program has been spent on expansion in the past, and how it is planned to be spent in the future, indicates that Wisconsin is considerably far from adhering to a fix-it-first policy.
Past Spending Trends
Over the last fifteen years, the legislature and governor have directed the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) to build more and more roads and spend less and less to take care of them.
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Between 1988 and 2003, WisDOT spending on Major Highway Projects – a partial proxy for expansion - increased 101% over inflation. Debt Service to pay off revenue bonds, which are used to pay for Major Highway Projects, increased 360%.
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Meanwhile, spending on Rehabilitation – more or less repair - has increased 40% over inflation while spending on Maintenance has actually decreased 3% compared to inflation.
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If the trend of the last 15 years of spending an average 14% more each year in order to pay off Revenue Bond Debt Service continues, by 2020 annual Debt Service payments will be more than $1.6 billion per year.
Yet, these proxies for expansion, repair and maintenance are not entirely accurate – the categories are broad and considerable expansion work is buried in the Rehabilitation program.
Planned Future Spending
Of the $3.95 billion Six Year Highway Plan for 2002-2007, more than 40% of the spending is on expansion and widening projects.
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Of the Six Year Plan, 43.5% will actually go towards expanding our state highway system instead of fixing our existing roads first. Roughly $1.72 billion of the $3.95 billion in planned work is expansion and widening.
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Of this $3.95 billion, WisDOT identifies $851 million, or 21.6%, as Major Highway Projects, which are generally understood as the expansion projects in the state.
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However, in the Six Year Plan, WisDOT also identifies an additional $248 million of expansion work clearly identified within the Rehabilitation program, bringing the expansion total to 27.8% of the State Highway Program.
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According to specific project notes in the Six Year Plan, there is an additional $619 million of expansion work hidden in Rehabilitation projects not clearly identified as Major Highway Projects or Rehabilitation projects with expansion.
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Totaled, these three categories – Major Highway Projects, Rehabilitation with clearly identified expansion projects, and Rehabilitation with hidden expansion projects, combine to produce the $1.72 billion figure.
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Subtotaling the two categories of expansion work not part of Major Highway Projects - Rehabilitation with clearly identified expansion projects, and Rehabilitation with hidden expansion projects – there is more than $850 million in expansion work buried in the Rehabilitation program, which is construed as repair work.
Between the budget actions of the legislature and the governor, and the development of the Six Year Plan by WisDOT, State Highway Program work in Wisconsin is heavily slanted towards expansion work and, not only that, but many of the expansion projects are also buried in a program that is widely believed to be repair work.
Click here for a pdf copy of 1000 Friends’ State Highway Program Analysis.
1000 Friends of Wisconsin
16 N. Carroll Street, Suite 810 Madison
WI 53703 608.259.1000