Kabat’s priorities for 2019 road fixes includes high-use streets

There may or may not be a wheel tax to help fund road fixes in La Crosse next year.

There will, however, be plenty of roads that need fixing and with less than $10 million to do all of it.

It’s like putting 10 pounds of potatoes into a five pound sack, suggests La Crosse Mayor Tim Kabat.

“I think we’re down to about maybe I wanna say $17 million of high-priority streets,” Kabat said. “Obviously, we do not have $17 million of resources to do that.”

Kabat says rehabbing the top tier of streets in need comes to over $30 million.

“The ones that I’m going to really strongly advocate for are some of the major thoroughfares,” Kabat said.

He wants to prioritize Losey Boulevard along with La Crosse, Green Bay, and Gillette streets for road fixes next year.

“Those are my, kind of, Top 4, that I really think, because of just the amount of traffic that they carry,” Kabat said. “That would be a lot of good fixes if we can get those done.”

Kabat says La Crosse street will likely include just spot fixes like the city did at certain intersections this year. A complete fix of La Crosse Street likely won’t come until 2021 when WisDOT has the street on its renovation schedule.