Wisconsin puts stimulus money into rural bridges

Wisconsin's targeting of economic stimulus money for rural bridges is raising some eyebrows in major media. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found that most of the 37 bridges that will receive federal funding carry fewer than 1,000 vehicles per day, with average daily traffic of 538. One carries 10 per day. The independent investigative site ProPublica noted the story today. (Journal Sentinel photo by Mark Hoffman shows bridge over the Rock River in Addison)

Officials said rural bridges got priority because they are generally smaller and less complicated to design, and the stimulus favors "shovel ready" projects. "Engineering and design plans had to be in place, and the contracts for the work needed to be ready to go by March 2010," write Tom Held and Ben Poston. "Given the tight deadlines, infrastructure projects with the greatest public safety needs aren't necessarily the ones that received funding."

Traffic was not necessarily a factor. "For a town, this is the only way (a bridge) will ever get improved. Will you tell the farmer who has to haul his milk over the bridge that only gets 100 cars a day that his bridge won't ever be fixed?" asked Michael Erickson, who manages the state's local-bridge improvement program. John Kropp, highway engineer in Manitowoc County, said, "We're looking at bridges that take 15 to 20 cars per day, but they still serve the same purpose as the bridges in Milwaukee, getting people from one side to the other." (Read more)