Even after a summer of rocky roads and detours, Madison will be forced to endure the construction for at least two more months.
Johnson Street renovation and bridgework on the Beltline are slated for completion by mid-October, despite the off-schedule Johnson Street construction.
The demolition is causing headaches for Johnson Street business owners, including owners of the Nitty Gritty, Chardonnay and Madison Masala, who say they are losing a significant amount of business due to the construction that began last spring.
Other highway projects, including the pending reconstruction of a portion of U.S. 151 that runs from Madison to Sun Prairie, could be delayed for more than a year.
When Gov. Jim Doyle signed the state budget, he vetoed tens of millions of dollars in road spending that the Republican-run Legislature added. Some of his critics argued this move could delay as many as seven projects over the next two years in Dane County.
However, construction in the city of Madison will not be affected by Doyle’s veto.
The Department of Transportation predicts 14 other construction projects outside of Madison could be postponed for up to two years.
The Republican legislative majority proposed to spend $1.93 billion on highways, a number Doyle described as “excessive.” This criticism, however, only angered several Republicans, who contend Doyle’s veto will devastate the road budget and hurt Wisconsin’s economy.
Despite the cuts, Wisconsin will spend $1.72 billion on highway rehabilitation and construction over the next couple of years.
Administration officials from the Department of Transportation said none of the cuts should affect or delay the current road projects in south-central Wisconsin, including Dane County, and will be finished this fall.
“The governor realizes the importance of transportation to the infrastructure and economic development of Wisconsin,” Transportation Executive Assistant Randy Romanski said. “He has budgeted $77 million more this year than any other.”
Doyle used state funds for the transportation budget and transferred the money to the general-funds account. In place of this cash, he borrowed more money to make highway projects whole. This put the debt service on the shoulders of the transportation funds.
On the other hand, Republican legislators argued that if all of the highway money is going from the extra borrowing being done through the transfer, then the general funds should be responsible for the debt. They wanted to enumerate four new projects and insert a provision to add funding in the next budget.
Doyle then used his veto power to make sure gas taxes and vehicle-registration fees are used to pay off a large road-building loan. These cuts, he hoped, would create a $150 million budget surplus to go toward other programs like education and health care. The Legislature wanted to use state sales and income taxes to pay off the loan — directing more general-purpose revenues to the road lobby.
With all the money maneuvering, Doyle recently announced a possible $80 million savings that the Department of Transportation plans to put back into the previously proposed delays.
Kevin Traas of the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association said all of the fund-shifting has left people unclear over when construction might actually start.
“We have not yet seen what their expectations are for the next few years,” Traas said. “Because the budget works on a two-year schedule, the DOT does know how much money they have now so improvement plans can become real.”
Local construction, including the work being done in Madison right now, operates on a local system that gets state aid from General Transportation Aids. Funds are currently frozen for the 2003 fiscal year, so there will be no inflation.
