November 14, 2025

By Lane Kimble

It’s easy to make a promise on the campaign trail. It’s a lot harder to actually deliver on them.

Then-candidate Tony Evers famously quipped Wisconsin would “fix the damn roads” under his watch while running for office in 2018. Thursday the governor was recognized for sticking with that plan.

“Every budget (Evers) has presented has had an increase in transportation funding in the state of Wisconsin. We’ve never seen that happen before,” new TDA President Robb Kahl said. “We’re going to miss him, but we understand sometimes it’s time to go and do some fun things.”

Kahl awarded Evers with TDA’s Transportation Service Award during the association’s annual meeting in Madison. It’s just the second time the group selected a governor for the honor since its inception in 1987.

“I’m honored to accept this award knowing it’s coming from a group of folks who share my dedication to building the quality infrastructure Wisconsinites really, really deserve,” Evers said.

The governor rattled off accomplishments such as restarting the Transportation Projects Commission, signing the new Agricultural Roads Improvement Program into law, and completing the Zoo Interchange project while providing funding to help fix more than 8,600 miles of roads and 2,000 bridges since taking office in 2019.

Evers announced this summer he will not seek reelection for a third term.

“You’ve got all sorts of candidates out there making promises,” Evers told the group after accepting his award. “Keep the pressure on, folks. It isn’t a guarantee going forward, but I feel confident that all we’ve done is going to make that transition even better.”