I-39/I-90 study in southern Wisconsin

[NE2]

More death-diamonds? why?

Because they work?

[WarrenWallace]

Work has been delayed on 39/90 between Madison and the Illinois border.
New dates: http://projects.511wi.gov/i-39-90/schedule/

[ET21]

6 years of yuck lol

[I-39]

What the heck is going on here? Why is this getting delayed? This should be on the TOP of the list of projects. This should be moved up, not back.

So WisDOT feels it's cool to ignore main routes that need rebuilding, but build bypasses of every single major community that has a US highway running through it. Cool.

[WarrenWallace]

My neighbor's theory is that the state legislators are sticking it to Dane and Rock Counties (Madison, Janesville, Beloit) since they almost always vote democratic.  My feeling is that may be a bit true, but they probably wanted to spread the money and projects out around the state instead of just the populated areas.  I'd rather the money go to wherever it does the most good instead of local pet projects, but I don't get a vote.

[triplemultiplex]

They are delaying it until they get an injection of money from the feds.
That's my bet.

You watch; in a year or two, it will suddenly be full speed ahead.

[peterj920]

According to the new schedule, it looks like it's being delayed about 2-3 years.  The I-43 Interchange was supposed to be done by 2018, now it's 2020.  Right now, there are a lot of major projects that are being worked on that have significant progress.  The Zoo Interchange, the Wis 441 project, and the North-South Freeway project.  The Wis 23 project between Fond Du Lac and Plymouth was supposed to start this year, but Judge Adleman vacated the EIS and that project has been shelved indefinitely.  Another major project that hasn't started yet is Wis 15 between New London and Greenville.  That also may be delayed.  There's just so many projects that are being worked on, it's hard to delay other major projects that are far along.   

[triplemultiplex]

WI 23 and WI 15 can wait in my opinion.

The delay for I-43 north of Silver Spring sucks.  That stretch of freeway should have been modernized 30 years ago.

For I-39/90, it might have been better to go forward on the expansion from IL to Janesville (less the I-43 interchange) and bump the expansion between Janesville and Madison longer rather than stringing out the entire project like they seem to be doing.

[Roadguy]

The delay is not due to federal money.  These majors projects already have pretty low federal funding percentages with them (usually averaging around 30% with past majors).  We are witnessing the first string of delays due to the $500 million cut in the state transportation budget passed last June.  They won't blame it on that due to political reasons but that is the cause.  The project team was well on the original track to delivering the project in the original schedule.  Expect additional delays on Wis 441 (the eastern end of the project), North-South (already been delayed multiple times), and at this point I doubt 15 (Hortonville Bypass) will get built anytime soon (I think they would be lucky with the status of the state transportation budget it gets built).

If you think things are going to get better 2 years from now when the next state budget gets passed, take a hard look at the numbers.  The budget 2 years from now without any added funded (whether re-directed or new) to transportation will mean even more cuts than the $500 million if the want to maintain the existing bonding levels.  Wisconsin is at the 20% threshold where that percentage of the gas tax and registration fees coming in are needed to pay off existing bonding from past budgets.  If they keep bonding, it only means a higher percentage of those collected dollars (gas tax and registration fees) will go towards debt payment versus road construction.

39/90 will probably need to see a major re-scope for cost savings if the state wants to keep it on the delayed schedule that was just released.

[Rothman]

The delay is not due to federal money.  These majors projects already have pretty low federal funding percentages with them (usually averaging around 30% with past majors). 

That's bizarre if it's true.  Must be because of the share of federal funds distributed to Wisconsin, but this work would be National Highway Performance Program eligible and I'd wonder why Wisconsin would be using non-federal funds to complete major interstate work.

Then again, there's a proposed plan here in NY due to a shot of state bond money (to fill a hole to bring NYSDOT up to where it was per the state budget rather than true additional funds) to use a lot of that on huge projects as well and let the fed dollars go to all sorts of maintenance needs across NYSDOT's regions.  Perhaps Wisconsin somehow ended up in the same boat.

[SEWIGuy]

The delay is not due to federal money.  These majors projects already have pretty low federal funding percentages with them (usually averaging around 30% with past majors).  We are witnessing the first string of delays due to the $500 million cut in the state transportation budget passed last June.  They won't blame it on that due to political reasons but that is the cause.  The project team was well on the original track to delivering the project in the original schedule.  Expect additional delays on Wis 441 (the eastern end of the project), North-South (already been delayed multiple times), and at this point I doubt 15 (Hortonville Bypass) will get built anytime soon (I think they would be lucky with the status of the state transportation budget it gets built).

If you think things are going to get better 2 years from now when the next state budget gets passed, take a hard look at the numbers.  The budget 2 years from now without any added funded (whether re-directed or new) to transportation will mean even more cuts than the $500 million if the want to maintain the existing bonding levels.  Wisconsin is at the 20% threshold where that percentage of the gas tax and registration fees coming in are needed to pay off existing bonding from past budgets.  If they keep bonding, it only means a higher percentage of those collected dollars (gas tax and registration fees) will go towards debt payment versus road construction.

39/90 will probably need to see a major re-scope for cost savings if the state wants to keep it on the delayed schedule that was just released.

Exactly.  And the bonding issue isn't just related to roads.  The state has stopped or delayed numerous building projects across the state and the University system due to concerns over borrowing levels.  When you cut income tax, and refuse to raise gas tax, this is really an inevitable result. 

[The Ghostbuster]

That's a bummer 39/90 is being delayed, along with those other projects. But what are you going to do?

[I-39]

That's a bummer 39/90 is being delayed, along with those other projects. But what are you going to do?

Time to raise the gas tax to get things moving again, but that will never happen.

[triplemultiplex]

Tolls.

[CtrlAltDel]

According to the new schedule, it looks like it's being delayed about 2-3 years.  The I-43 Interchange was supposed to be done by 2018, now it's 2020.

Did they pick an alternative for the I-43 interchange?

[I-39]

Tolls.

No, Gas Tax increase. And perhaps a tax on electric charging stations for electric cars.

[peterj920]

According to the new schedule, it looks like it's being delayed about 2-3 years.  The I-43 Interchange was supposed to be done by 2018, now it's 2020.

Did they pick an alternative for the I-43 interchange?

They did.  It's a semi-directional T for I-43, then Wis 81 will have a diverging diamond interchange with I-39/90, and access to I-43 to Beloit will be at the County X/Hart Rd Interchange.  Here is the preferred alternative.  It's a large file so it may take a couple moments to load.

http://projects.511wi.gov/i-39-90/wp-content/uploads/sites/145/20150211-Interchange-Preferred-Alternative_South.pdf

[WarrenWallace]

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/m-fed-grant-would-mean-earlier-expansion-of-i-/article_6c309d78-42eb-5353-be67-c7e511769032.html

$40M fed grant would mean earlier expansion of I-39/90 near Janesville

With the grant, construction on the four-mile section between Avalon Road and Highway 14 will begin in 2018 instead of 2020 as initially planned.

The project will expand the number of lanes from four to eight.

The segment carries, on average, 57,000 cars each day and has the highest amount traffic of any portion of the 45 miles of interstate between the Illinois border and Madison, according to WisDOT.

[I-39]

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/m-fed-grant-would-mean-earlier-expansion-of-i-/article_6c309d78-42eb-5353-be67-c7e511769032.html

$40M fed grant would mean earlier expansion of I-39/90 near Janesville

With the grant, construction on the four-mile section between Avalon Road and Highway 14 will begin in 2018 instead of 2020 as initially planned.

The project will expand the number of lanes from four to eight.

The segment carries, on average, 57,000 cars each day and has the highest amount traffic of any portion of the 45 miles of interstate between the Illinois border and Madison, according to WisDOT.

So is this just for the lanes or will they also be doing the interchanges in that segment at the same time?

[hobsini2]

I-39, I would guess that since they recently redid the Wis 11 interchange, it would be for just adding lanes.

[I-39]

I-39, I would guess that since they recently redid the Wis 11 interchange, it would be for just adding lanes.

The US 14 and WIS 26 interchanges will be reconstructed/reconfigured in the Janesville area as part of this project too, so I was wondering if those will be moved up as a result of this.

[The Ghostbuster]

I still can't believe they are holding off on the reconstruction of the Interstate 39/90 interchange with US 12/18. I think it should have been reconstructed with the rest of the Madison-to-State Line project.

[triplemultiplex]

Looks like I was at least partially right:

They are delaying it until they get an injection of money from the feds.
That's my bet.
You watch; in a year or two, it will suddenly be full speed ahead.

[I-39]

I still can't believe they are holding off on the reconstruction of the Interstate 39/90 interchange with US 12/18. I think it should have been reconstructed with the rest of the Madison-to-State Line project.

I thought they were still supposed to? They had an information meeting in the Spring, but it's not in the schedule. Someone should contact WisDOT regarding the status of it.

[paulthemapguy]

Hey, help a poor FIB out...When you talk about a reconstruction of the 39/90 and 12/18 interchange, does that include any realignment of the ramps?  Or just a replacement of the roadbeds (i.e. dig it out and put it back)?