Wednesday, November 28, 2007

DOT: Signs of Waste

Charles Benson noticed, and asked a few questions.

About a dozen new signs are costing taxpayers thousands of dollars

They're on I-94 west of Hy. 16. Are they really needed?

...Jennifer Wensel could not see any difference. "No, I didn't notice anything being different or more reflective,"

"Typically when we do signs, they last 12 to 15 years," explained Tom Heydel, traffic operations engineer for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation

That's not a good explanation, Tom. What if they last 30 years? 40 years? And how in Hell would you know? The signage you're replacing is just fine and dandy.

We're told the big new signs cost some $3,000 to $4,000

Does that include the labor to install them? If not, then the actual cost is more like $5,000-$7,500/each--or, in the case at hand, around $50-75K total.

1 comment:

Headless Blogger said...

They also replaced the guard rails around the abutments at each overpass on a large part of I-94 in Jefferson County. A lot of busy work can be done if you put too much money in the road builders budget.