No No No No No No No No.

From JSOnline...

Federal and state transportation authorities endorsed plans to expand I-94 to eight lanes in the 35-mile stretch from the Mitchell Interchange to the state line, in a revised environmental impact statement issued today.

The report was prepared as part of the approval process for the freeway reconstruction and expansion, which would represent the largest highway project in state history at a cost of $1.9 billion.

Assessing the need for the project and the potential environmental impact, the state Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration determined that an additional lane in each direction is necessary to handle projected traffic on the important corridor.

Additional lanes are expected to reduce projected drive times in various parts of the corridor by 10 minutes in 2035, the final year covered in the study period, according to the report.

The transportation officials also wrote that the project would not violate federal clean air laws. They project that emissions in the area would decrease through 2035, based on expected reductions in traffic congestion and improvements in emission controls on vehicles over the coming decades.

I don't even know where to begin. TWO BILLION DOLLARS??? The entire damn state budget has been around 2 billion dollars the last few years. That stretch of freeway isn't that congested!!! I should know, I spent the better part of last year driving that stretch at various hours of the day. Morning, noon and night, it didn't matter. Once you got south of Ryan Rd, it was smooth sailing all the way to the state line. We can't even fix potholes here in metro Milwaukee, but we're gonna needlessly put more concrete where we DON'T NEED IT. Schools are failing here ( MPS just released graduation figures here in Mke... a whopping 49% graduation rate ), but lets spend the 2 billion on expanding a highway that isn't even congested!!!

And they just repaved 94/894 around town, and that gets congested like a mo-fo. So why didn't they talk about expansion there? Like, where we actually NEED it.

Politics, and government mishandling of money makes me wanna puke. Is the majority of the public that blind to what they're doing with OUR money?

And what's with the bias of the article??? "the important corridor". ALL CORRIDORS are important to somebody. If you build a road, or a freeway, and people use it, they're using it to go somewhere. The road outside my house is important to ME, otherwise, I couldn't get anywhere. To imply this 35 miles of road is more important than other stretches of highway in Wisconsin is wrong.

And again... TWO BILLION DOLLARS!!! I'll personally repave/expand/repaint the stretch for one billion dollars. That's alot of freakin money. Man this stuff really pisses me off.