“Fixing the damn roads”
Road construction plagues the Wisconsin commuter during every season not named winter. It’s warranted however as roads in Wisconsin endure heavy loads, blades of plows and inground frost issues.
This is our plea to fix Hwy. 13 and other local highways helping central Wisconsin get to school, work, the grocery store, hospital appointments or anywhere else this upcoming road construction season. Stretches of Hwy. 13 have experienced major failures that only a reconstruction project can totally fix. The highway has been slated for reconstruction for a few years and currently, the Department of Transportation shows a section of the highway is scheduled to be worked on either in 2023 or 2024. Other sections state the project is tentatively scheduled for 2023 and one of the sections says the project could have even started in 2022 but is otherwise tentatively scheduled for 2023.
Similarly, Hwy. 153 which connects Hwy. 13 to Stratford and beyond, is on the list to get repaved. The DOT website says, “tentatively scheduled for 2023” in the project description, similar to sections of the Hwy. 13 project.
The highways are used by semi tractor-trailers, busses, logging trucks, construction trucks, farming tractors and just about any other type of heavy vehicle you can imagine. That use and abuse has caused sections of the highway to buckle and break apart. Some of the sections of busted-up pavement on Hwy. 13 includes a stretch in the northbound lanes from County Hwy. F to East Apple Street in Spencer, from Fairhaven Ave to Second Street in Unity, and others in-between.
The roadway on the south end of Unity has been crumbling in recent years, exposing vehicles to large, unavoidable potholes. Those potholes have been filled in with a blacktop-style filler, being used as a temporary patch but has not provided a solution to the problem.
The ride from Marshfield to Abbotsford is a rough one and needs to be remedied as soon as possible. The project description using words like tentatively or 2023 or 2024 shouldn’t be in place. These roads need to be fixed now. We understand there are other projects around the state that require the same urgency as these but the road construction season is long. Pushing these roads to the forefront of the list will save commuting central Wisconsinites money and from the destruction of their vehicles.
“Fixing the damn roads.” That was a campaign slogan used by Tony Evers when he was first running for the governor position in 2018. The state needs to get construction started in central Wisconsin in 2023 instead of 2024, follow what the governor has said and fix the damn roads.
The Tribune-Phonograph editorial board consists of publisher Kris O’Leary, editor Neal Hogden and reporter Nathaniel Underwood.
