Wisconsin Toll Road Discussion

[JREwing78]

There's chatter about allowing toll roads in Wisconsin, particularly on heavily-traveled routes like I-90.
http://gazettextra.com/news/2012/feb/01/it-time-toll-roads/

If it meant a Madison-to-Chicago direct tollway would happen, or some other new construction that wouldn't have otherwise, I'm all for it. But a lot of people expect this to solve all highway funding ills (and save some pennies at the pump) - and that's just patently ridiculous.

I commute 80 miles a day. 30.9 cents per gallon at the pump is not killing my budget. It's the other $3 to $4 a gallon Big Oil takes out, the maintenance and depreciation costs with driving that much, and the time out of my day that hurts. They could jack gas taxes up by 50 cents, and I'd barely notice.

[tchafe1978]

I think tollways, along with tacos and Bears fans, all belong south of the border.

[mgk920]

The only corridor where I could see a 'new construction' tollway working anywhere in the State of Wisconsin is on US 12 SE of Madison, one segment being between I-39/90 (Cambridge?) and Fort Atkinson and the other being the Elkhorn-Whitewater 'corner cut' (keep the existing freeway and expressway parts *free*).

This assumes, too, that Illinois gets off of its collective rear end to complete their long-planned IL 53 Lake County North Tollway, including its northwest leg to Richmond by way of McHenry.

As for the fuel tax, I have long held that the big mistake that was made when fuel was first taxed to provide the money needed to build and maintain roads was that it was made a volume-based tax (dollars per unit of volume sold) instead of a percentage of the price based tax (like other retail sales taxes).

Mike

[Jordanah1]

i would agree, only US12 being upgraded between chicagoland and madison could be built as a tollway, however, i think the existing freeway section could also be tolled, if they do complete the highway in say 20years, the current segment *which is allready in need of some help* would without doubt be completely rebuilt, and that would allow for construction of toll booths.

[triplemultiplex]

Wisconsin has pretty much expanded all the major corridors that needed expanding in the last quarter century.  If it's the mid-80's and we're talking about replacing WI 29 or US 10 or US 53 with full access control facilities, then I could be talked into tollways, I guess.  But like most people, I'm loathed to accept a toll on a highway that is currently free.  Especially in a state like Wisconsin where long stretches of interstate are not necessarily in desperate need of more lanes.  I'm sure we'd all like 6 lanes between Madison and Beloit or between Portage and Tomah, but it's no where near the situation on like I-70 in Missouri or I-81 in Virginia.

In the event that something happens on that US 12 Madison - Chicagoland corridor, I wouldn't have a problem with that being a tollway.  That includes the existing freeway in Walworth County.  The whole thing will have to be 6 lanes anyway so that old freeway would get a bunch of upgrades and justify it's conversion to a pay road.  I'm all for charging people money who want to get to Chicago faster.

What I would certainly be open to in the near term is building HOT lanes into freeway expansions around Milwaukee.  Especially I-94 between Waukesha and downtown and I-43 between Mequon and downtown.  We could also throw a toll on the new Stillwater Bridge if that will expedite construction.  One more tollway proposal for Wisconsin: US 53 bypass of Superior.  Might be worth a buck or two to swing around to the Bong Bridge on a controlled access facility to a fully free-flow interchange with I-35 all paid for with tolls.

[mgk920]

Wisconsin has pretty much expanded all the major corridors that needed expanding in the last quarter century.  If it's the mid-80's and we're talking about replacing WI 29 or US 10 or US 53 with full access control facilities, then I could be talked into tollways, I guess.  But like most people, I'm loathed to accept a toll on a highway that is currently free.  Especially in a state like Wisconsin where long stretches of interstate are not necessarily in desperate need of more lanes.  I'm sure we'd all like 6 lanes between Madison and Beloit or between Portage and Tomah, but it's no where near the situation on like I-70 in Missouri or I-81 in Virginia.

In the event that something happens on that US 12 Madison - Chicagoland corridor, I wouldn't have a problem with that being a tollway.  That includes the existing freeway in Walworth County.  The whole thing will have to be 6 lanes anyway so that old freeway would get a bunch of upgrades and justify it's conversion to a pay road.  I'm all for charging people money who want to get to Chicago faster.

I would think that setting tollgates/EZPass gantries on just the two major currently unbuilt segments of US 12 in Wisconsin would be able to 'ding' though traffic enough to cover the cost of building and maintaining the entire 6-lane upgraded highway (IMHO, likely to be promoted to a full interstate should that happen) without having to inconvenience the locals.

Mike