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Published - Thursday, May 08, 2008

Editorial: Eight-lane highway drains infrastructure dollars, encourages sprawl

Lawmakers in Racine and Kenosha counties want to expand 35 miles of Interstate 94 from Mitchell Field to the Illinois border from six to eight lanes.

Here’s a better idea: Encourage people in Racine and Kenosha counties to live closer to their places of employment.

It’s estimated that adding one lane in each direction would increase the cost of the I-94 repair/resurface project from $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion. As a percentage of the project, $200 million may not sound like much, but $200 million could certainly fill a lot of potholes around the state. But the expansion from six to eight lanes suffers from a more fundamental flaw -- the idea that society can pave its way out of congestion problems.

There’s little doubt that urban highways are congested. The problem, however, isn’t more people; the problem is an explosive increase in total miles driven. From 1974 to 2004, total vehicle miles of travel in Wisconsin more than doubled, while Wisconsin’s population increased just 21 percent during that same period. The conclusion is obvious: discretionary driving has rapidly outpaced population growth. Included in those discretionary miles are longer and longer workplace commutes.

Why should Wisconsin divert $200 million in precious infrastructure dollars to subsidize excessively long commutes to work? An eight-lane highway will simply encourage more residential sprawl and eventually lead lawmakers to demand that I-94 be expanded to 10 lanes.

For all the allegations that Wisconsin is neglecting its highways, numerous expressways and freeways have been completed in the past 10 years. Most Wisconsin cities are now connected by four-lane, limited-access highways, and major four-lane projects connecting Dubuque to Green Bay, Green Bay to Menomonie, Appleton to Stevens Point and Chippewa Falls to Superior are complete or almost complete. It’s difficult to conceive of any new highway expansion project that’s needed at this time.

It is, however, easy to conceive of roads that need to be maintained, patched and repaired. That must be the focus of infrastructure spending, and it can be done with the same Department of Transportation budget that exists now. The new motto at the DOT -- and in the state Legislature -- should be “maintenance first.” It makes sense for the environment, and it makes sense for taxpayers.