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I-90/39 Interstate expansion project still set to start in 2015

JANESVILLE--Preparations for the widening of Interstate 90/39 will continue despite Gov. Scott Walker’s recent request that a state board review major highway projects that have been approved but not yet started.

That’s according to Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie, who said the state plans to move forward with the project that would expand the Interstate from four to six lanes from the Illinois state line to Madison and from four to eight lanes through Janesville.

The state’s Transportation Projects Commission approved the I-90/39 project in 2010. Construction is scheduled to start in 2015 and end in 2019.

Questions about funding sources for state construction projects have surfaced in the last several months.

In his budget address last week, Walker specifically addressed major construction projects in Milwaukee but made no mention of the I-90/39 project.

To help the state’s stressed road fund, Walker proposed that the commission review major highway projects to determine which could be eliminated.

Specifically, the language in Walker’s budget proposal directs the commission to “examine each enumerated major highway project on which no construction has been performed to determine if the project is appropriate for removal from the list of enumerated major highway projects.”

Walker’s proposal mandates that the commission recommend to the Legislature by January 2016 any projects appropriate for removal from the list.

For a full story, read Friday’s Gazette, read online in the Gazette’s E-Edition or check back at GazetteXtra.com.