Economic development, Wisconsin Highway Improvement Program - Wisconsin Department of Transportation

WisDOT maintains 11,753 miles out of 112,262 miles of the public roads in the state. The state highway system includes 750 miles of interstate freeways and 11,010 miles of state and US-marked highways. Although the state highway system represents only 10.5% of all of the public road mileage in Wisconsin, the state highways carry about 60% of the highway travel or about 35 billion vehicle miles of travel a year.

The Wisconsin highway improvement program currently invests over $750 million each year, resulting in over 565 miles of roads improved and rehabilitated annually. The program addresses deficiencies in the highway and bridge system and incorporates needed new improvements to increase the safety and mobility of the system. The program is divided into two subprograms with specific emphasis areas.

Major Highway Development

State Highway Rehabilitation

Relationship to economic development

Although the highway improvement program is essentially a maintenance and rehabilitation program, it does supports commerce and economic development in the state. In many ways the highway improvements also act as a catalyst for economic development. Each invested dollar returns benefits to businesses and travelers in terms of time savings, fewer accidents and decreased vehicle operating costs. Poor roads mean more accidents and deaths, higher insurance costs, more wear and tear on vehicles, more time on the road and less efficient and competitive means of conducting commerce in the state.

From an economic development perspective, highway improvements provide many benefits to manufacturers, retailers and service businesses. Highway improvements reduce the shipping costs for manufacturers and distributors. Retailers are able to expand their market areas and provide consumers with a greater variety of choices. Highway improvements reduce accidents and increase the reliability of the transportation network so that deliveries of raw materials and finish products can arrive "just-in-time" to the production facilities and retail centers. Improved highways provide more options for people to live, work, shop and spend their leisure (vacation) time.

Economic benefits of highway improvement projects

There are at least four major benefits of highway rehabilitation and maintenance projects:

Time savings (cost savings) realized by businesses and worker commuter trips,
Safety and geometric improvements facilitate freight commodity flows and production schedules,
Enhancing and promoting visitor and tourist travel experience to the state, and
Local rehabilitation and maintenance projects improve access and traffic flow for local businesses and help to attract new business to the region.

Case studies

Cardinal Glass Company operates one glass manufacturing plant in Menomonie, Wisconsin with another plant under construction in Portage, Wisconsin. Both facilities manufacture glass for the construction industry and depend upon smooth and stable roads to get glass to window and door manufacturers in western Wisconsin and Minnesota. Cardinal Glass ships over 1,000 annual truckloads of product per year to other manufacturers utilizing just-in-time manufacturing practices. The local road and interstate system allows the product to be delivered on time with minimal breakage and contamination (dust).

When local economic development officials bring prospective manufacturing clients to the community, the site considered for development must have good accessibility into the site. Highway rehabilitation projects maintain and improve the functionality of current accesses. Well-maintained roads are an asset of the community for attracting business and industry to the region. For many of the rural communities in Wisconsin, highway resurfacing and reconstruction projects run directly through the community's business district. Both resurfacing and reconstruction enhance the appearance of the business district as well as improve circulation and parking availability. Community leaders, chambers of commerce, and local developers are eager to know when highway projects are scheduled for the area because they have such an important impact on the community.

For more examples of improvement projects and their relationship to economic development, see our transportation region projects Web page.

For additional information, see WisDOT's Highway Improvement Program Web page.

US Highway 151

Examples of Highway Improvement projects by transportation region

Additional information about the Highway Improvement Program