December 6, 2024

By Lane Kimble

MADISON, Wis. — A new website detailing where and how the state’s Agricultural Roads Improvement Program (ARIP) is being utilized should launch in the next few months.

WisDOT division leadership told the WTBA Board of Directors during its meeting Thursday the goal is to make the ARIP Web portal public in Spring 2025.

The site’s purpose is twofold: provide counties and municipalities with a singular place to apply for and track funding for projects.  It will also give contractors the chance to see where projects are being advertised and how much material will be used to do the work.

WisDOT staff has been working on the web-based application since the Legislature passed the new ARIP program as part of the 2023-25 budget. It provides $150 million for projects that rehab rural roads which directly serve farms and agricultural processing plants.

The program’s first round awarded 37 projects just shy of $50 million this past summer. WisDOT says round two’s awards covering the other $100 million should be announced in the next few weeks. The projects are evenly distributed around the state’s five regions, save for the Southeast Region which has fewer rural roads.

The site’s development will also lead to WisDOT upgrading the Local Road Improvement Program’s (LRIP) online platform to make material quantities and advertising public. Those upgrades are expected in September 2025.

WTBA staff and its members have pressed WisDOT to provide this type of data for years, which made Thursday’s news an encouraging update.