The Milwaukee Bridge To Nowhere Now The Bridge To Fiscal Ruin

Quite a telling tale in the effort by some south side suburban communities and other office holders to make the state repair, and then rebuild, the Hoan Bridge.

Initially over-engineered out of the highway planner's Interstate Highway pattern book to soar over the Harbor - - and for years so disconnected from the street grid in Bayview that it was known as the Bridge to Nowhere - - the Hoan now faces repairs, or perhaps total replacement that by 2050 could cost $3 billion, according to a Journal Sentinel account of a private meeting held among state and local officials.

Mind you: these whopping costs are on top of the $6.5 billion projected for the freeway reconstruction and expansion plan.

And is there any money to be spent on local road aids, and dare I say it: Transit? Perhaps rail?

Where is all this funding to come from?

Some suburban leaders have lapsed into Black Helicopter mode, thinking that there is a conspiracy among developers, Milwaukee officials and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to substitute a smaller, lower bridge in order to free up land for commercial or residential construction.

Hardly.

Trust me: WisDOT doesn't work that cooperatively with Milwaukee - - that it would go out of its way to add taxable property to the city. The opposite is true: homes and businesses and land have been gobbled up by the new Marquette Interchange, with more losses to come in future freeway system expansions.

The reason that WisDOT is discussing a smaller or alternative Hoan Bridge is because the department knows that sustaining a white elephant will help drown its budgets in red ink.

It always amazes me that in the face of massive state fiscal problems, the pro-highway crowd always wants more-more-more.

WisDOT needs to keep its eye on the financing issue, or else go out and tell the public the truth, which is if it wants to rebuild the Hoan Bridge as is, there will be substantial tax and fee increases statewide to pay for it.

Will the elected officials pushing for a big, tall, new bridge carry that weight?

Should people in Ashland and Boscobel and Blooming Grove pay that freight?

Transit upgrades are always hung up in the "how to we pay for it" conundrum.

It's way past due holding highway projects to a similar standard.

"Because I want it" is not a good enough reason to commit the state to billions in spending for a single bridge that was too big in the first place.

There's a real opportunity here to scale back the Hoan to something reasonable that continues to serve the south side and nearby communities and that also saves the state a big chunk of money.

And if that frees land for development, then that's great, too.

But let the conversation continue, and let's think big and broad at the same time.