Highway Construction

Highway Audit Confirms Wasteful Spending

In May 2015, 1000 Friends of Wisconsin called for an audit of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation after our lawsuit against the widening of Highway 23 revealed systematic deficiencies in the planning of major projects. We continued to raise awareness over the next few months and legislators heard our call. In December 2015, the non-partisan Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) was tasked by the legislature to carry out an audit of WisDOT’s highway program. 1000 Friends worked closely with the state auditors throughout this process.

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Highway 23 Two lane

Legal challenge spotlights shaky traffic forecasting key to highway projects

By Rob Schultz – Wisconsin State Journal. As legislators debate how to trim the massive transportation portion of the next state budget, a federal judge has delayed a $166 million highway expansion project in eastern Wisconsin amid questions about the traffic forecasting methods that helped justify it.

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Rebalance Transportation Spending to Match Needs

A new, alternative Transportation Budget for the state of Wisconsin calls for reduced spending on highway expansion for projects that have not been experiencing increases in traffic would help fund local transportation needs.

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Roadbuilders take on 1000 Friends of Wisconsin – and they get totally tripped up in the facts

Roadbuilder lobbyist Craig Thompson took on an opinion piece that we wrote for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, calling for less spending on highway expansion. Not surprisingly Mr. Thompson presented factually inaccurate and misleading arguments in his critique of our work.

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