4th Street fix part of ongoing dispute with DOT over La Crosse Street

It’s just a temporary fix starting this week on the well-traveled 4th Street through downtown La Crosse.

It’s part of a larger dispute between the city and the state over fixing all of La Crosse Street.

“We learned that the last time La Crosse Street was resurfaced — so they grind down and then put on new asphalt — was done in the 1980s,” La Crosse Mayor Tim Kabat said Thursday afternoon from the WIZM studio. “And those resurfacings are supposed to last 12-15 years.”

La Crosse Street, also state Highway 16, isn’t on a calendar of projects from Wisconsin Dept. of Transportation.

Crews will remove and replace asphalt at the intersection of 4th and La Crosse street over the next few days and weeks.

It’s an intersection of state highways Kabat will ask the state DOT to pay for the repairs. He’s skeptical the state agency will agree to that request, which points to a flawed system.

“Imagine the transportation and job creation,” Kabat said, “and the good things that could be happening to an even greater extent, if we weren’t constantly having these arguments about fixing our streets and how to fund them.”

Kabat says La Crosse Street is well beyond the need for regular maintenance.

“The maintenance means things like crack sealing and doing kind of minor pothole patching, and the ceiling when we need to,” he said. “When the road gets to the point and the condition that it’s in, that really is a rebuild.”

Kabat has said he hopes to repave all of La Crosse Street next year, whether the city has to foot the bill or not.