Wisconsin Department of Transportation

Construction for 2020 is nearing completion on a two-year improvement project on U.S. 12 between U.S. 63 and WIS 128 in St. Croix County, Wis. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) is overseeing the work, which began in April, and called for resurfacing U.S.

The joint Wisconsin-Minnesota Twin Cities-Milwaukee-Chicago (TCMC) Passenger Rail Project has been selected to receive a $31.8 million federal rail grant. The TCMC project will add an additional daily round-trip between the Twin Cities, La Crosse, Milwaukee and Chicago and points in-between, along the existing long-distance Amtrak Empire Builder route.

Gov. Tony Evers and Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) Secretary-designee Craig Thompson on July 7 announced more than $160 million in transportation aid for local governments as part of the governor's 2019-21 biennial budget. Local governments will receive quarterly payments totaling $160,249,246 for General Transportation Aids (GTA), Connecting Highway Aids and Expressway Policing Aids from the WisDOT.

A $1.2 billion Wisconsin interstate project under construction since 2015 is now two-thirds completed. The WisDOT Interstate 39/90 project stretches 45 mi. from the Illinois border to the U.S. 12/18 interchange in Madison. The original highway was built more than 50 years ago and is dated, inefficient and unsafe, according to WisDOT.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation's (WisDOT) WIS 23 Expansion, a considerable investment that covers the highway from Plymouth to Fond du Lac, is divided into three sections — two rural and one urban — and last May, Relyco Inc. began construction on the first rural section.

Local governments will receive quarterly payments totaling $99,147,647 for General Transportation Aids (GTA), Connecting Highway Aids and Expressway Policing Aids from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT). For calendar year 2020, local governments will receive an estimated $521 million in financial assistance to support transportation related projects.

Finally, after a two month lay-off caused by high river levels, iron workers recently returned to work raising a new bridge crossing the Mississippi River between the city of Red Wing, Minn., and the western shoreline of Wisconsin. Rising river levels from early spring melting temperatures forced iron workers off the bridge site on March 18 after working a 24-hour schedule the previous week.

Officials broke ground May 8 on a long-awaited project to reconstruct 19.1 mi. of Wisconsin State Highway 23 from Fond du Lac to Plymouth. WFRV-TV, Green Bay, reported that work was scheduled to begin May 13. The project, which will expand the highway from two lanes to four between U.S.

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) announced two new staff: Mike Lietke is senior director, statistics and Sara Feuling is director, construction. Lietke comes to AEM from Briggs & Stratton in dealer development and field training and 12 years with Harley Davidson, serving in dealer district management and market and financial analyst positions.

As part of his efforts to create jobs and make sure Wisconsin is open for business, Gov. Scott Walker recently approved $3.2 million to improve 11.6 mi. of WIS 55 in Calumet County from U.S. 151 in the town of Brothertown, to WIS 114 in the town of Sherwood.

Governor Scott Walker announced that 29 agencies across the state will receive $15.7 million in funding for Transportation Alternative Program (TAP) projects. TAP projects are federally-funded, smaller scale transportation projects have a utilitarian purpose which expand travel choice, strengthen the local economy, improve the quality of life and protect the environment.