Lane Kimble

MADISON — Time was running short.

You don’t keep the Green Bay Packers’ Chairman Emeritus waiting in the wings for long.

That’s when inspiration struck for Steve Baas, who was looking for a way to wrap up a panel discussion on transportation at the Construction Business Group’s annual conference.

“Mark Murphy and the Packers didn’t win a Super Bowl overnight,” Baas said, gesturing to a smiling Murphy, who was standing in the back of the room. “Reaching our goal takes the same kind of commitment.”

Indeed, just as it took Murphy and former GM Ted Thompson time to develop Aaron Rodgers, draft stars like Clay Matthews, lure Charles Woodson to Green Bay, and win Super Bowl XLV, it will take a step-by-step, patient approach to fill a more than $1 billion transportation funding shortfall in Wisconsin.

“A little win here, a little free agent there, a little move here, and we’re eventually going to get there,” Baas said.

Baas was joined on his panel by WisDOT Secretary Kristina Boardman, TDA Executive Director Debby Jackson, and Wisconsin Towns Association’s Joe Ruth.  They were the final segment of the all-day conference in Madison prior to Murphy’s closing keynote address.

CBG’s conference at The Madison Club focused heavily on data center construction and energy demands in Wisconsin.

During lunch, renowned pollster Dr. Charles Franklin provided valuable insights into how people perceive data centers, AI, and construction in general, along with some must-watch state Senate and Assembly races.

The conference also brought together six of the seven Democrats polling in the race for governor for a candidate Q&A session (Francesca Hong was unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict.)

But it was Baas’ group–moderated by Walbec Group’s Brandon Strand–that dove the most into what’s at stake for fixing and maintaining our state’s critical road network.

Most importantly is finding a sustainable and reliable way to supplement a stagnant gas tax that hasn’t changed since lawmakers removed indexing in 2006.

So, moments before Mark Murphy would entertain the crowd with stories about the NFL and his father’s “Pearls of Wisdom,” Baas offered a pearl of his own:

“If you’re going to plan, if you’re going to be coherent for the longterm, you can’t do it one budget snapshot at a time.  The ball we have to keep our eye on is that feature-length film,” Baas said.  “The ‘film’ is that longterm, sustainable, sufficient thing.  We need to be obsessed with getting that outcome and big-tent on talking about mechanics.

“At the end of the day, the best (solution) is the one that can pass.”

More than 1,600 small bridges across Wisconsin are in poor or severe condition, with some needing immediate replacement.

That’s a key part of the findings from a multi-year “small bridge inventory” WisDOT recently wrapped up. WTBA helped secure $12.5 million in the 2023-25 state budget for the inventory.

Now, a coalition of industry partners led by the Transportation Development Association (TDA) is urging people to discover which bridges they use on the way to work, school, vacation or a trip to the pharmacy may need attention.

TDA developed a website, FixWIBridges.com, which offers maps, explains ratings, and highlights specific bridges needing improvements.

While bridges spanning 20 feet or more have long been monitored, the state previously had no centralized way of tracking the status of bridges and culverts that run just 6 to 20 feet.

Counties, towns and municipalities mapped where the state’s 17,000 “small structures” are, then certified bridge inspectors rated each one on a scale of 0-9 throughout 2025. “Severe” bridges are rated 0-2, while “poor” are rated 3-4.

“Although the state recently allocated $30 million to begin addressing the most urgent cases, this funding only scratches the surface,” TDA Executive Director Debby Jackson said in her news release announcing the website.

Vernon and Dane counties have the most poor- and severe-rated bridges in the state, with 111 and 104, respectively.

Extra sets of eyes and cameras will keep close tabs on 10 construction projects this season, with the hope of making work zones safer across the state.

WisDOT walked contractors, project managers, and consultants through its new Work Zone Safety Pilot Project during a virtual meeting Thursday afternoon.

The study will analyze how various flagging setups and technologies impact driver awareness and attitudes around work zones.  WTBA successfully pushed to include $600,000 for the pilot in the 2025-27 state budget.

“I don’t think we ever have an event with WTBA where safety is not a topic,” WTBA Exec. Director Steve Baas told the group of about 65 attendees. “This is one additional way to put our money where our mouth is on the topic that is very important to all of us.”

The pilot is focused on 10 two-lane projects spread across each of the state’s five regions. Three other projects with standard flagging operations will serve as a control group.

Project sites include locations in Walworth, Green Lake, Calumet, Grant, Dunn, Polk and Lafayette counties.

Strategies include additional law enforcement presence, automated flagger devices, alert warning systems, digital speed reduction boards, and smart arrow boards connected to services such as Waze and 511.

Contractors on participating projects will need to fill out incident reports and weekly summaries, which the WisDOT-hired consultant company will use to supplement its observational, recorded and computerized data.

WisDOT intends to complete an internal review and report by the end of 2026. The department must submit a final report to the state Legislature by spring 2027.