Our State Highway Rehabilitation Program is the largest component of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s budget.

That shouldn’t come as a surprise since those dollars are responsible for preserving, resurfacing, reconditioning and reconstructing our existing 11,200-mile state trunk highway network.

Knowing the importance of providing sufficient highway infrastructure for our residents and visitors, my fellow Joint Finance Committee members and I decided to use some of the state’s surplus to increase funding for the program by approximately $330 million over the 2025-27 biennium.

The DOT utilizes a computerized model of the state highway system, as well as occasional field reviews, to determine where deficient segments exist or will eventually emerge.

Using that information, DOT officials will develop lists of candidate improvement projects that address those inadequacies. They will then consider such factors as priority of need and local interest before selecting which projects make the final cut.

For next week’s “Testin’s Throwback Thursday,” I will focus on the provision I got passed in the current state budget that implemented the Make My Move initiative.