Work to repair and rebuild roads around Wisconsin’s farms and food producers is another step closer to beginning.

Tuesday, WisDOT opened applications for the new Agricultural Roads Improvement Program (ARIP.) The Legislature and governor dedicated $150 million of one-time money in the 2023-25 state budget toward the program

WTBA registered in favor of ARIP and lobbied for its approval during the 2023 budget process.

ARIP projects must fix failing roads, culverts, and small bridges that directly service farms and agricultural fields. A selection committee will judge applications based on the largest economic impact, most farms or producers helped by one project, and situations where the road is the only way in or out for farmers and producers.

Applicants (municipalities) that face significant budget issues will also be given special consideration.

The deadline to apply is April 5, 2024. WisDOT says Sec. Craig Thompson will announce awards in July.

During an August 2023 press event at a Rock County farm, Thompson told WTBA he thinks it will largely be “our private sector partners that will be contracted out to do the work.”

WisDOT intends to repair the approaches on seven bridges around Green Bay.

The Department launched a new project website this week detailing the plans for sites along I-41 between Ashwabenon and Howard.  

The original asphalt approaches settled more than expected after construction, leading to bumpy transitions for traffic traveling onto and off the bridges.

The current plan is to replace the approaches with concrete and possibly replace up to 600 feet on either side of the approaches. WisDOT expects preliminary designs by August, final plans about a year later, and construction to begin in 2027.

You can learn more about the project HERE.

Madison’s Dane County Regional Airport has seen a lot of construction and upgrades the past few years and is about to get even more.

The Daily Reporter says DCRA received a $2 million federal grant to rebuild an airport road for emergency and service vehicles. 

The work will allow trucks to go around taxiways, reducing the risk of vehicles crossing near or waiting for airplanes.

Crews finished the first phase of building a new passenger terminal in 2023. Phase two – removing the old south terminal – will happen this year.

Agency: Wage and Hour Division

Date: January 29, 2024

Release Number: 23-2598-NAT

A widespread investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor has recovered nearly $16 million in back wages and restored over 24,700 paid sick leave hours to leave banks for more than 2,800 workers denied their full wages and benefits by 62 subcontractors hired to construct temporary housing and provide services to Afghan refugees at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey.

After 75 investigations that included Jupiter, Florida-based Disaster Management Group LLC, one of the project’s general contractors, and 61 subcontractors, the department’s Wage and Hour Division found DMG and its subcontractors violated federal law, including the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act, the Davis-Bacon Act, the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act and Executive Order 13706, by failing to:

Pay minimum prevailing wage rates to workers.

Pay fringe benefits.

Pay proper overtime.

Offer required paid sick leave under Executive Order 13706.

Properly classify workers as employees in their appropriate trades according to the work they performed.

Maintain required records, including segregating any benefits that may have been paid from wages.

Provide required notices to workers informing them of their rights under federal law.

The division found DMG liable for its own violations of federal law as well as for violations committed by its subcontractors for work performed at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. Managed by the Department of Defense, the project involved contractors from 17 states and Puerto Rico tasked with building temporary housing and coordinating delivery of medical, food and translation services as part of Operation Allies Refuge and Operation Allies Welcome to resettle Afghan refugees. The project began in July 2021 and was completed in February 2022.

In addition to paying the back wages and fringe benefits, DMG signed an enhanced compliance agreement with the department that requires it to develop and follow strategies to prevent, detect and resolve potential non-compliance by, among other things:

Creating a written prevailing wage compliance manual to include employees’ federal protections.

Vetting potential subcontractors’ ability to perform work in compliance with prevailing wage laws.

Monitoring itself and its subcontractors proactively by periodically conducting confidential employee interviews, reviewing basic and certified records, analyzing the use of classifications related to the work performed, verifying fringe benefit payments and maintaining a list of all employees of all subcontractors on any covered contracts.

Requiring subcontractors to certify compliance on all prevailing wage projects.

Verifying that the agency has incorporated the correct labor clauses and wage determinations.



“Every worker deserves to be paid the full wages to which they are entitled, and this compliance agreement, which recovers millions in wages for hundreds of workers, should serve as notice to other government contractors that the department will utilize its full power to enforce vigorously federal wage laws,” said Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda.

New state voting districts competitive enough that party winning the most votes 'will win the most seats' in the Legislature

BY RICH KREMER  FEBRUARY 22, 2024

For the first time in more than 50 years, the state Legislature and governor reached a bipartisan agreement on new legislative maps, one that could substantially shift the balance of political power in Wisconsin.

The new maps were drawn by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and passed by Republican lawmakers, who said they’d have a better shot at maintaining their majorities with the governor’s district lines than under other options that were being considered by the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s liberal majority.

With the maps now signed into law, all eyes are on the November election to see how new district lines affect who the voters of Wisconsin send to Madison to represent them.