Chapter 84

84.18(2)(e) (e) “Local bridge project” means a project for the design and construction or rehabilitation of a seriously deteriorating local bridge and minimum approaches.

84.18(2)(f) (f) “Seriously deteriorating local bridge” means a local bridge exhibiting deficiencies that meet the criteria established by the department.

84.18(3) (3) Administration. The department shall administer a local bridge program which provides an entitlement of funds to the coordinating agency for the reconstruction or rehabilitation of seriously deteriorating local bridges. The department shall provide the same percentage of the cost of a local bridge project as the percent established under 23 USC 144 (f).

84.18(4) (4) Applications. Any eligible applicant may apply to the coordinating agency for funds under this section. A separate application is required for each local bridge project. The application shall describe the specific local bridge project for which funds are to be used. The department shall prescribe the form, nature and extent of information to be contained in the application.

84.18(5) (5) Determination of entitlement. The department shall determine the entitlement to the coordinating agency based upon the ratio between the estimated cost of reconstructing or rehabilitating seriously deteriorating local bridges in that county and the estimated cost of reconstructing or rehabilitating the seriously deteriorating local bridges in the state which are eligible under this section, exclusive of any bridge that is programmed for construction under an order by the department under s. 84.11 (4). The estimated cost of reconstructing or rehabilitating the seriously deteriorating local bridges in the state and individual counties shall be based upon those bridges identified in the inventory of bridges made under s. 84.17.

84.18(6) (6) Execution and control of work. Subject to s. 30.2022 and the control exercised by the United States, the construction under this section of any local bridge project shall be wholly under the supervision and control of the department. The secretary shall make and execute all contracts and have complete supervision over all matters pertaining to such construction and shall have the power to suspend or discontinue proceedings or construction relative to any bridge project at any time in the event any county, city, village or town fails to pay the amount required of it for any project eligible for construction under this section, or if the secretary determines that sufficient funds to pay the state’s part of the cost of such bridge project are not available. All moneys provided by counties, cities, villages and towns shall be deposited in the state treasury, when required by the secretary, and paid out on order of the secretary. Any of the moneys deposited for a project eligible for construction under this section which remain in the state treasury after the completion of the project shall be repaid to the respective county, city, village or town in proportion to the amount each deposited.

84.18(7) (7) Rules. The department shall adopt rules to implement this section.

84.18(8) (8) Exceptions. Nothing in this section prevents any of the following:

84.18(8)(a) (a) Construction or rehabilitation projects under other bridge programs if applicable.

84.18(8)(b) (b) The sharing of the cost under s. 82.08 to fund the local share of a local bridge project.

84.18 History History: 1981 c. 20, 314; 1989 a. 31; 2003 a. 118; 2023 a. 162.

84.18 Cross-reference Cross-reference: See also ch. Trans 213, Wis. adm. code.

84.185 84.185 Transportation facilities economic assistance and development.

84.185(1) (1) Definitions. In this section:

84.185(1)(a) (a) “Business” means a company located in this state, a company that has made a firm commitment to locate a facility in this state, or a group of companies at least 80 percent of which are located in this state.

84.185(1)(am) (am) “Economic development project” means a business development that directly retains jobs or increases the number of jobs in this state.

84.185(1)(b) (b) “Governing body” means a county board, city council, village board, town board, regional planning commission or transit commission under s. 59.58 (2) or 66.1021.

84.185(1)(bm) (bm) “Grant ceiling” means the department’s maximum financial participation in an improvement.

84.185(1)(c) (c) “Improvement” includes construction, reconstruction and the activities, operations and processes incidental to building, fabricating or bettering a transportation facility, but not maintaining or operating a transportation facility.

84.185(1)(ce) (ce) “Job” means a position providing full-time equivalent employment. “Job” does not include initial training before an employment position begins.

84.185(1)(cm) (cm) “Political subdivision” means a county, city, town, or village.

84.185(1)(d) (d) “Transportation facility” means any of the following:

84.185(1)(d)1. 1. A highway as defined in s. 340.01 (22).

84.185(1)(d)2. 2. A runway, taxiway or apron of an airport as defined in s. 114.002 (7).

84.185(1)(d)3. 3. A harbor improvement as defined in s. 85.095 (1) (b).

84.185(1)(d)4. 4. Rail property consisting of an industrial lead, spur, team track property or trackside intermodal transfer facility.

84.185(1)(d)5. 5. A segment of railroad track, if the conditions under sub. (2) (c) are met.

84.185(2) (2) Approval of improvements.

84.185(2)(a) (a) The secretary may approve the improvement of a transportation facility under this section if the improvement is a component of an economic development project.

84.185(2)(b) (b) The secretary may approve an improvement under this section only after determining all of the following:

84.185(2)(b)1. 1. Whether the improvement is a justified transportation need. An improvement qualifies as a justified transportation need only when the secretary determines that the costs of the improvement are substantially balanced by significant transportation benefits resulting from the improvement.

84.185(2)(b)2. 2. The cost of the improvement.

84.185(2)(b)3. 3. The ratio of the cost of the improvement to the number of jobs retained or created in this state resulting directly from the improvement or economic development project.

84.185(2)(b)4. 4. The number of jobs which the improvement or economic development project will cause to be retained or increased in this state.

84.185(2)(b)5. 5. Whether the political subdivision will contribute, from funds not provided by this state, not less than 50 percent of the cost of the improvement.

84.185(2)(b)6. 6. The value of the expenditures required for local infrastructure relating to the improvement.

84.185(2)(b)7. 7. Whether the improvement is compatible and complementary to other transportation facilities and improvements in the political subdivision.

84.185(2)(b)8. 8. Whether the improvement serves a public purpose.

84.185(2)(b)9. 9. Whether the improvement is unlikely to be made without assistance under this section.

84.185(2)(b)10. 10. Whether the improvement will be located in an area of high unemployment or low average income.

84.185(2)(b)11. 11. Whether the improvement will contribute to the economic growth of this state and the well-being of the residents of this state.

84.185(2)(b)12. 12. Whether a business that would be helped by an improvement is financially sound.

84.185(2)(b)14. 14. Whether the improvement would have a significant negative impact on other businesses.

84.185(2)(c) (c) The secretary may approve the relocation of a segment of railroad track as an improvement of a transportation facility if the land on which the track lies is necessary for the expansion or continued operation of an existing business facility and the conditions under pars. (a) and (b) are met.

84.185(3) (3) Department share.

84.185(3)(a) (a) When awarding a grant under this section, the department shall establish a grant ceiling. Except as provided in par. (b) 2., the grant ceiling shall not be amended after the secretary has approved an application for funding. Except as provided in par. (b), the grant ceiling shall be the lesser of the following:

84.185(3)(a)1. 1. 50 percent of the anticipated cost of the improvement.

84.185(3)(a)2. 2. Five thousand dollars for each job retained or created in this state resulting directly from the improvement or economic development project.

84.185(3)(b) (b)

84.185(3)(b)1. 1. If the secretary finds that special circumstances exist, the secretary may increase the grant ceiling determined under par. (a).

84.185(3)(b)2. 2. The secretary may increase the grant ceiling determined under par. (a) by $50,000 if the secretary determines that all of the following apply:

84.185(3)(b)2.a. a. The improvement includes the construction, expansion or rehabilitation of a rail spur or other facility related to railroads.

84.185(3)(b)2.b. b. The applicant demonstrates that the improvement will result in a reduction in the amount of motor truck traffic entering or exiting the area or community in which the improvement is located.

84.185(3)(b)2.c. c. The department received the application for assistance under this section before April 27, 1998, and either the improvement was not completed by that date or not all reimbursements under this section were made by that date.

84.185(3)(b)3. 3. The department may reduce the grant ceiling determined under par. (a) for any reason, including the following:

84.185(3)(b)3.a. a. The grant ceiling determined under par. (a) is based on 50 percent of the anticipated cost of the improvement and would result in a grant exceeding $1 million.

84.185(3)(b)3.b. b. Grants for all eligible applications would exceed available funds.

84.185(3m) (3m) Review of applications. The department shall accept, review, and make determinations on applications for assistance under this section on a continuing, year-round basis. The department shall make a determination on each application for assistance under this section within a reasonable time after its receipt by the department.

84.185(4) (4) Rules. The department shall promulgate rules establishing criteria for making determinations under this section. The rules shall include criteria to rank projects and make competitive selections, and criteria and procedures for the repayment of loans made under sub. (6m).

84.185(6m) (6m) Administration. From the appropriations under s. 20.395 (2) (iq), (iv) and (ix), upon the approval of the secretary under sub. (2), the department may make improvements to or provide other assistance for the improvement of a transportation facility under sub. (1) (d) 1. to 3. or provide other assistance for the improvement of a transportation facility under sub. (1) (d) 4. or 5. The department may make loans from the appropriations under s. 20.395 (2) (iq) and (iw) for the improvement of a transportation facility. The state share of costs for the improvement of a transportation facility, including any loans made under this subsection for the improvement of the transportation facility, may not exceed 50 percent of the cost of the improvement.

84.185(7m) (7m) Agreements. The department may enter into agreements with a governing body or private source, or both, respecting the financing of an improvement under this section.

84.185(8m) (8m) Exception. Nothing in this section prevents the improvement of a transportation facility under other applicable provisions.

84.185(8r) (8r) Ethanol production facilities. The department may not make a grant under this section after July 27, 2005, for an improvement related to an economic development project that involves the construction of an ethanol production facility, unless the department determines a competitive bidding process is used for the construction of the ethanol production facility.

84.185(9) (9) Exclusion of private roads. No private road or driveway, as defined in s. 340.01 (46), may be improved under this section.

84.185 History History: 1987 a. 27; 1989 a. 31; 1991 a. 39; 1993 a. 16; 1997 a. 237; 2001 a. 109; 2005 a. 25; 2007 a. 20; 2011 a. 32; 2019 a. 63.

84.185 Cross-reference Cross-reference: See also ch. Trans 510, Wis. adm. code.

84.20 84.20 State repair and maintenance of highways and streets. Damage to any county trunk or town highway or city or village street caused by reason of its use as a detour designated by the department or for hauling materials incident to the maintenance, repair or construction by the department of any state trunk highway or street over which a state trunk highway is routed, shall be repaired by the department. Such highway or street shall also be maintained by the department during such use. Subject to s. 86.255, the cost of such repairs and maintenance shall be paid from funds appropriated and available to the department for the maintenance and improvement of state trunk highways and connecting highways under s. 20.395 (3).

84.20 History History: 1973 c. 333 s. 201w; 1977 c. 29 ss. 1654 (3), (6) (b), (8) (a), 1656 (43); 1999 a. 9.

84.25 84.25 Controlled-access highways.

84.25(1) (1) Authority of department; procedure. The legislature declares that the effective control of traffic entering upon or leaving intensively traveled highways is necessary in the interest of public safety, convenience and the general welfare. The department is authorized to designate as controlled-access highways the rural portions of the state trunk system on which, after traffic engineering surveys, investigations and studies, it shall find, determine and declare that the average traffic potential is in excess of 2,000 vehicles per 24-hour day. Such designation of a portion of any state trunk highway in any county as a controlled-access highway shall not be effected until after a public hearing in the matter has been held in the county courthouse or other convenient public place within the county following notice by publication of a class 3 notice, under ch. 985, in a newspaper published in the county. If the department shall then find that the average traffic potential is as provided by this subsection, and that the designation of the highway as a controlled-access highway is necessary in the interest of public safety, convenience and the general welfare, it shall make its finding, determination and declaration to that effect, specifying the character of the controls to be exercised. Copies of the finding, determination and declaration shall be recorded with the register of deeds, and filed with the county clerk, and published as a class 1 notice, under ch. 985, in the newspaper in which the notice of hearing was published, and the order shall be effective on such publication. Not more than 1,500 miles of highway shall be designated as controlled-access highways under authority of this section.

84.25(2) (2) Controlled-access highway defined. For the purposes of this section, a controlled-access highway is a highway on which the traffic is such that the department has found, determined and declared it to be necessary, in the interest of the public safety, convenience and the general welfare to prohibit entrance upon and departure from the highway or street except at places specially designated and provided for such purposes, and to exercise special controls over traffic on such highway or street.

84.25(3) (3) Construction; other powers of department. In order to provide for the public safety, convenience and the general welfare, the department may use an existing highway or provide new and additional facilities for a controlled-access highway and so design the same and its appurtenances, and so regulate, restrict or prohibit access to or departure from it as the department deems necessary or desirable. The department may eliminate intersections at grade of controlled-access highways with existing highways or streets, by grade separation or service road, or by closing off such roads and streets at the right-of-way boundary line of such controlled-access highway and may divide and separate any controlled-access highway into separate roadways or lanes by raised curbings, dividing sections or other physical separations or by signs, markers, stripes or other suitable devices, and may execute any construction necessary in the development of a controlled-access highway including service roads or separation of grade structures.

84.25(4) (4) Connections by other highways. After the establishment of any controlled-access highway, no street or highway or private driveway, shall be opened into or connected with any controlled-access highway without the previous consent and approval of the department in writing, which shall be given only if the public interest shall be served thereby and shall specify the terms and conditions on which such consent and approval is given.

84.25(5) (5) Use of highway. No person shall have any right of entrance upon or departure from or travel across any controlled-access highway, or to or from abutting lands except at places designated and provided for such purposes, and on such terms and conditions as may be specified from time to time by the department.

84.25(6) (6) Abutting owners. After the designation of a controlled-access highway, the owners or occupants of abutting lands shall have no right or easement of access, by reason of the fact that their property abuts on the controlled-access highway or for other reason, except only the controlled right of access and of light, air or view.

84.25(7) (7) Special crossing permits. Whenever property held under one ownership is severed by a controlled-access highway, the department may permit a crossing at a designated location, to be used solely for travel between the severed parcels, and such use shall cease if such parcels pass into separate ownership.

84.25(8) (8) Right-of-way. Any lands or other private or public property or interest in such property needed to carry out the purposes of this section may be acquired by the department in the manner provided in s. 84.09.

84.25(9) (9) Cooperative agreements. To facilitate the purposes of this section, the department and the governing bodies of a city, county, town or village are authorized to enter into agreements with each other or with the federal government respecting the financing, planning, establishment, improvement, maintenance, use, regulation or vacation of controlled-access highways or other public ways in their respective jurisdictions.

84.25(10) (10) Local service roads. In connection with the development of any controlled-access highway, the department and county, city, town or village highway authorities are authorized to plan, designate, establish, use, regulate, alter, improve, maintain, or vacate local service roads and streets or to designate as local service roads and streets any existing roads or streets, and to exercise jurisdiction over local service roads in the same manner as is authorized over controlled-access highways under the provisions of this section, if, in their opinion, such local service roads or streets shall serve the necessary purposes.

84.25(11) (11) Commercial enterprises. No commercial enterprise, except a vending facility which is licensed by the department of workforce development and operated by blind or visually impaired persons, or a commercial enterprise exempted from this subsection by an agreement under s. 84.01 (30) (g), shall be authorized or conducted within or on property acquired for or designated as a controlled-access highway.

84.25(12) (12) Unlawful use of highway; penalties. It shall be unlawful for any person to drive any vehicle into or from a controlled-access highway except through an opening provided for that purpose. Any person who violates this provision shall be punished by a fine of not more than $100 or by imprisonment for not more than 30 days, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

84.25(13) (13) Vacating. A controlled-access highway shall remain such until vacated by order of the department. The discontinuance of all state trunk highway routings over a highway established as a controlled-access highway shall summarily vacate the controlled-access status of such section of highway only after a traffic engineer survey investigation and study finds, determines and declares that the vacating of the controlled-access status is in the public interest. Such vacating shall not be effected until after a public hearing is held in the county courthouse or other convenient place within the county, following notice by publication under sub. (1). The department shall record formal notice of any vacation of a controlled-access highway with the register of deeds of the county wherein such highway lies. When the county board, or county boards in the case of boundary line roads, by resolution enacted and filed with the department prior to the vacating of a controlled-access by the department, requests that the controlled-access highway be continued pursuant to s. 83.027, then and thereafter all authority established by s. 83.027 shall be in effect with respect to such controlled-access highway, except that the county need not comply with s. 83.027 (1), and the department shall be relieved of any further authority for such controlled-access highway.

84.25 History History: 1977 c. 29 s. 1654 (8) (a); 1987 a. 258; 1993 a. 490; 1995 a. 27 ss. 3520, 9130 (4); 1997 a. 3; 1999 a. 9.

84.25 Annotation This section does not mean that once access is granted it may not be taken away. Estoppel is seldom applied against a government and would not be justified under the facts. Surety Savings & Loan Ass’n v. State, 54 Wis. 2d 438, 195 N.W.2d 464 (1972).

84.25 Annotation Sub. (3) authorizes the Department of Transportation to change access to a highway designated as controlled access in whatever way it deems “necessary or desirable.” In controlled-access highway cases, abutting property owners are precluded from compensation for a change in access under s. 32.09 (6) (b) as a matter of law. However, exercises of the police power cannot deprive the owner of all or substantially all beneficial use of the property without compensation. If the replacement access is so circuitous as to amount to a regulatory taking of the property, compensation is due and the abutting property owner may bring an inverse condemnation claim under s. 32.10. Provision of some access preserves the abutting property owner’s controlled right of access to the property. Reasonableness is not the standard to apply to determine if compensation is due under s. 32.09 (6) (b). Hoffer Properties, LLC v. DOT, 2016 WI 5, 366 Wis. 2d 372, 874 N.W.2d 533, 12-2520.

84.25 Annotation By allowing the Department of Transportation (DOT) to designate an existing highway “controlled-access” and to thereafter “regulate, restrict or prohibit access to or departure from it as the department deems necessary or desirable,” sub. (3) grants DOT broad control over the entire portion of the existing highway that has been designated “controlled-access,” including placement and replacement of access points. Because elimination of direct access points is a means of restricting or prohibiting access, it cannot be correct that the statute does not grant DOT authority to eliminate an owner’s direct access points. Hoffer Properties, LLC v. DOT, 2016 WI 5, 366 Wis. 2d 372, 874 N.W.2d 533, 12-2520.

84.25 Annotation Under sub. (1), it is the designation of a highway as “controlled-access” that must be “necessary in the interest of public safety, convenience and the general welfare” and that is an exercise of the police power. The designation as “controlled-access” serves as a precondition for the operation of the other subsections of this section. These subsections grant the Department of Transportation expansive powers after a proper designation of “controlled-access,” including authority over how the general public and abutting property owners access the highway. Once the highway has been designated “controlled-access,” the department may change the access points in whatever way it “deems necessary or desirable.” Hoffer Properties, LLC v. DOT, 2016 WI 5, 366 Wis. 2d 372, 874 N.W.2d 533, 12-2520.

84.25 Annotation The phrase “from time to time” in sub. (5) indicates that the legislature enabled the Department of Transportation to periodically change the terms and conditions by which any person—abutter or otherwise—has access to a controlled-access highway. Replacing direct access with a more circuitous route is inarguably a change of the “terms and conditions” by which an abutter is allowed to enter the highway. Hoffer Properties, LLC v. DOT, 2016 WI 5, 366 Wis. 2d 372, 874 N.W.2d 533, 12-2520.

84.25 Annotation Sub. (6) eliminates an abutting property owner’s right to compensation under s. 32.09 (6) (b) for a change to existing access at the moment the Department of Transportation designates the highway “controlled-access.” Replacement access that results in a circuitous route rather than a direct one is a lawful—if regrettable—result of controlling access. Hoffer Properties, LLC v. DOT, 2016 WI 5, 366 Wis. 2d 372, 874 N.W.2d 533, 12-2520.