Here & Now

Federal Transportation Infrastructure Funding

Frederica Freyberg:

Switching to news about how Wisconsin could see an infusion of federal dollars to help fix highways, roads and bridges. According to the Federal Highway Administration, nearly 1,000 bridges in Wisconsin are structurally deficient and more than a third of roads in the state are in fair or poor condition. The $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill introduced in the U.S. Senate this week would send some $5.5 billion to Wisconsin for highway and bridge projects. Wisconsin Secretary-designee of Transportation, Craig Thompson, joins us to describe where this money would be aimed. And thanks very much for being here.

Craig Thompson:

Thanks for having me, Frederica.

Frederica Freyberg:

First of all, how did we get to the place where a third of our roads are in such condition, and nearly a thousand bridges are structurally deficient?

Craig Thompson:

Well, over the last several decades, as our infrastructure has aged, in Wisconsin and most states across the country have not kept up in the investment we’ve needed and it really compounds upon itself and that’s how we’ve arrived at where we’ve gotten to, where we’ve got so many bridges and so many roads and ports and others that are really aging and in disrepair.

Frederica Freyberg:

So most remember the I-35 bridge collapse in the Twin Cities. There are 10 urban interstate bridges in Wisconsin marked as deficient. Are they in danger of that kind of thing, or what does that designation mean?

Craig Thompson:

No. Structurally deficient is a designation by the federal government, and it means something to engineers and it’s concerning that we need to look at it, but people should not be concerned, if we go out and inspect the bridges all of the time as does the federal highway administration and if we have any concerns, we will weight-restrict the bridge or we will close if we have any concerns that there could be harm.

Frederica Freyberg:

So how far would these billions of dollars go to repairing the roads and these bridges?

Craig Thompson:

This would really be huge for Wisconsin and for the country. Again, we have decades of disinvestment and actually the budget prior to this here in the state was really the first time we increased revenue for transportation, historic investment. We’ve begun the process of what seems like just such a daunting task of fixing our two-lane state highways and our roads we already have in Wisconsin, but this infusion of federal dollars, and it would be certain for the next five years, would really allow us to plan, be strategic and really begin to truly improve our infrastructure here in Wisconsin.

Frederica Freyberg:

Will some of the money go to local governments to repair or maintain their roadways as well?

Craig Thompson:

Well, as you know, we’ve got our general transportation aids that go to locals and then there’s projects that they have that we could fund through some of this, so absolutely, and there’s a lot of the bridges that are weight-restricted right now that really impacts our farmers, particularly, and some of our manufacturers around our local system. So we’ve been working very closely with our counties in particular to try to speed up those projects already, but some of these federal dollars for these bridges will certainly help us move that process along.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now there are some, like U.S. Senator Ron Johnson, who oppose the spending, citing the national debt. What about that persuasion on this giant infrastructure bill that is still undergoing amendment revisions?

Craig Thompson:

Well, I know people have had concerns about that in different areas, but I will tell you as it pertains to this infrastructure package, this is not — because we’re coming out of the pandemic from my standpoint — this is not about stimulating — this is about something that will improve our infrastructure. This is what governments should be doing and what we didn’t do for the last 30 years. We’re building things that will last for the next 50 years that will provide a platform where our private sector can compete better with China and with other areas that have invested in their infrastructure. This is not just putting money in to put money in. This will result in improved transportation infrastructure so our private sector can compete against the rest of the world.

Frederica Freyberg:

The bill also aims money towards mass transit and rail service, $595 million over a five-year period for public transportation in Wisconsin. How needed is an infusion of funding toward urban mass transit in your mind?

Craig Thompson:

This is so welcome. The Evers administration, we’ve proposed trying to increase funding for mass transit which is so needed in Wisconsin, and that’s one area while we found common ground on investing more on our roads in the last two budgets, this is an area we were not able to come to agreement on, they took out all the increases for mass transit that we had proposed. As a matter of fact for Milwaukee and Madison, they were even cut in this last budget. So this dedication of federal money to our mass transit systems is going to mean a lot to make it more accessible, easier to use, and when we do that, then usage goes up.

Frederica Freyberg:

So what kind of reaction and response have you been hearing from across the state to the potential of this infusion of funding?

Craig Thompson:

A lot of excitement. I was just up in the Green Bay area yesterday meeting with some large employers who could use some rail connections to take a lot of trucks off the road, improve their efficiency, and so there’s so many businesses like that across the state, so there’s just a lot of excitement of what this investment can do.

Frederica Freyberg:

We’ll wait and see. Craig Thompson, thanks very much.

Craig Thompson:

Thanks for having me.