Review of road spending shows Wisconsin preference for really big and spendy

There’s maybe a reason the roads are bad around here. Just look to the southeast corner of the state. Wisconsin’s beleaguered roads and massive building projects are the subject of study just published this week in Politico magazine. The study says vast highway expansion projects are undertaken especially around Milwaukee at expense of basic maintenance in the state. the study says that, between 2009 and 2011, Wisconsin spent only 39 percent of its highway dollars on maintenance versus 61 percent on new highway capacity. The biggest one completed: the Marquette interchange. At the time, the most expensive project in the state. The zoo interchange in Milwaukee is expected to cost twice as much.