New rural road program for Wisconsin appeals to Rep. Oldenburg

Some road and bridge projects in farm areas of Wisconsin might be too small to get government funding through normal channels. 

That’s about to change, now that Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers has signed an Agriculture Road Improvement Program. 

Assemblyman Loren Oldenburg of the 96th District took part in the governor’s signing ceremony Wednesday at a farm outside Stoddard.

“I think it will emphasize on these 20-foot crossings, unless they’re not in a federal bridge program,” Oldenburg said, “and it costs a lot of money to replace them, so this gives the ability to either come in to replace those, so equipment can go over it, widen ’em out maybe” to get products to market.

Oldenburg added that it’s fortunate that Wisconsin has a $7 billion budget surplus, which can be used to pay for the rural road improvements. Within the bill signed by Evers, is $150 million from that surplus for repair work on roads in bridges.

“So we have some extra one-time dollars that, hey, we could do some of these programs that’s never been done before,” he said. “Let’s try it.”

Republican Oldenburg, whose district covers three Vernon, Crawford and Monroe counties and he thinks the funding will be put to use fairly quickly.