March 31, 2004

WASHINGTON – The House plans to vote on a $275 billion highway bill Thursday which includes $3.8 billion for Wisconsin's roads and transit.

The bill was approved March 24 by the Transit and Infrastructure Committee where Wisconsin Rep. Tom Petri is the chairman of the Highways, Transit and Pipelines Subcommittee.

"We're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars overall for central Wisconsin, including an additional $90 million of projects that have been earmarked for completion as part of this bill," Petri explained.

"The projects that are particularly identified for extra funding in the 6th District in Wisconsin include some $25.6 million for reconstruction of the Lake Butte des Morts Bridge on Highway 41 just on the northern end of Oshkosh, and $16.5 million for six-laning highway 41 north of that bridge on Lake Butte des Morts. It includes some $16 million for four-laning Highway 23 from Fond du Lac to Sheboygan, a project that's been on the drawing boards for a very long time, and now, hopefully, will move forward on a definite timetable," Petri said.

"Additional money is for replacing the 17th Street lift bridge in Two Rivers, and [the bill] includes an additional $4 million in the City of Fond du Lac for grade separation on Pioneer Rd. so that people won't have to stop and wait for the trains that have been going through and disrupting people, in many cases, going to work or from work at Mercury Marine nearby, and a number of projects nearby, including Dodge County and the City of Oshkosh," he said.

"This will mean that Wisconsin will be more competitive as a state, because having an efficient road system will lower the cost of doing business in Wisconsin. It will also mean ours will be a safer state. We know that highway traffic is one of the major killers in the United States. Some 42,000 people each year die in traffic fatalities, and it's estimated nearly one-third of them could be prevented if our roads were modern and well- maintained. This will, I think, save lives," Petri said.

Petri added, however, that House passage of the highway bill won't be the end of the story. "It still has to work its way through the House-Senate conference, and then be signed into law by the President or be passed over his veto. And so we're still a few months away before we have this whole thing nailed down."