The opportunity or challenge? State Highway 106 runs through the City of Fort Atkinson and is a connecting highway, a designated route of the State Highway System existing in a municipality. The western portion of STH 106 is known in the Fort as Riverside Drive. This roadway last saw state work in the 1970s and is at the end of its useful life.

How would the “fix” benefit the community? WisDOT reconstructing the roadway would allow the community to address pavement conditions, curb and gutters, bike and pedestrian accommodations, stormwater upgrades, and speed and safety concerns. The result would be a road that would benefit the City of Fort Atkinson for decades. Unfortunately, WisDOT currently has this segment of STH 106 scheduled for a pavement replacement, putting many of these improvements in doubt and ensuring that the road will require more work in the not-too-distant future. Even the pavement replacement project fell back to 2030 from 2027.

What would make a reconstructing Connecting Highways like Riverside Drive more likely? The overburdened State Highway Rehabilitation Program needs more money to adequately maintain the State Highway System. With scare resources WisDOT must choose the lower-cost project today versus the project with the lowest lifetime cost. This make-do strategy results in more frequent orange barrels and traffic disruptions as each resurfacing has a shorter and shorter life span because the original roadway provides a less stable base as it continues to crack and fall apart.

What’s next? Longer-term solutions for these corridors are essential to benefit residents, businesses, tourists, and taxpayers.