Like thousands of other University of Wisconsin students who come to town from the south and the east, I’ve spent more than my fair share of time on that stretch of I-90/I-39 between Madison and the state border at Beloit.

This week, a state commission voted nearly unanimously to approve expansion of that 45-mile stretch of road from four lanes to six. At a cost of $715 million to the state, the plan is similar to the cost of the much-debated high-speed rail line between Madison and Milwaukee.

The one legislator who got it right by voting against this plan? None other than state Sen. Glenn Grothman, a man any reasonable human being has a hard time agreeing with. The West Bend Republican, for once, is right – he wants to expand I-43, the road from Beloit to Milwaukee to Green Bay, before spending any cash on this busy stretch of road.

I-90/I-39 is a heavily traveled stretch of road, but other than FIBs coming to and from their lake houses up north on July weekends, it’s rarely at capacity, especially in comparison to the busy thoroughfare between Milwaukee and Green Bay.

The real issue with I-90/I-39 is the pavement itself, as well as a few hills whose grades are too steep for Wisconsin winters.

Remember that blizzard that ripped apart this city in February 2008, closing everything except UW? That night, more than 2,000 motorists were stranded on the road between Madison and the Dane County-Rock County border.

The reason? One hill in particular was too steep for some of the semis struggling to get toward Chicago in the snowy winter night. Gov. Jim Doyle had to deploy the National Guard to get the trucks moving and bring blankets and gasoline to the poor, yet idiotic, souls who decided to hit the road in a blizzard.

Rather than catering to the few thousand Chicagoans who come up to our fine state a few weekends a year, the state should focus its resources to make sure that something like that doesn’t happen again. Resurface the entire area, change the grades on some of the hills, and you’ll be dong the taxpayers more of a service than an extra lane ever could.

I am, in general, cautious of expanding roads without additional funding. It already costs the federal and state governments so much to maintain our interstates that adding in an extra lane to a busy road without implementing some sort of toll system seems silly in a time when certain measures of austerity should be the focus of state government.

Then again, I’m a proud Midwesterner who’s sick of truckers tearing apart our major roads in long trips from New York to Fargo or Toronto to Minneapolis, so I support regular tolls on nearly all interstates as a matter of good policy.

I never thought I’d say this, but the Legislature and governor should listen to Grothman on this issue come budget time in 2011.

Kevin Bargnes is a senior majoring in journalism and history. Got a problem with tolls, or are you a FIB who hates getting stuck in traffic? E-mail him at [email protected].