Road and bridge assistance programs

The following programs assist local governments with needed improvements to local roads, highways and bridges.

  • Connecting Highway Aids - This program provides municipalities with assistance for costs associated with increased traffic and maintenance on roads that connect segments of the State Highway System.

  • County Forest Road Aids - Counties may receive assistance to defray costs for the improvement and maintenance of public roads within county forests.

  • Disaster Damage Aids - Local governments may apply to receive financial assistance to repair any highway that has had significant damage due to a disaster event.

  • Emergency Relief - This program assists local governments with replacing or repairing roadways or roadway structure damage on all federal-aid highways (major collectors and above) resulting from a catastrophic failure or natural disaster.

  • Expressway Policing Aids - The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department receives assistance for the costs of patrolling expressways within the county.

  • Facilities Repeatedly Requiring Repair and Reconstruction (F4R) - The federal government requires all states to identify and conduct evaluations of facilities that have had catastrophic damage resulting in state emergency declarations on two or more occasions.

  • General Transportation Aids (GTA) - The second largest program in WisDOT’s budget, GTA returns to local governments roughly 25% of all state-collected transportation revenues (fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees) to help offset the cost of county and municipal road construction, maintenance, traffic and other transportation-related costs.
  • Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) - The HSIP funds highway safety projects at sites that have experienced a high crash history. Emphasis is on low-cost options that can be implemented quickly.

  • Lift Bridge Aids - The cities of Milwaukee, Racine, Green Bay, and Manitowoc are reimbursed for costs associated with the operation of nine lift bridges on connecting highways within these communities that provide connections to the State Highway System.

  • Local Bridge Improvement Assistance - This program allocates federal and state funds to help local governments rehabilitate and replace the most seriously deficient existing federal-aid-eligible local structures on Wisconsin’s local highway systems.

  • Local Roads Improvement Program (LRIP) - The LRIP assists local governments in improving seriously deteriorating county highways, town roads, and city and village streets. The program has three basic components: County Highway Improvement (CHI); Town Road Improvement (TRI); and Municipal Street Improvement (MSI). Three additional discretionary programs (CHID, TRID and MSID) allow municipalities to apply for additional funds for high-cost road project.

  • Signals and ITS Standalone Program (SISP) - The SISP funds the installation, replacement or rehabilitation  of traffic signals or intelligent transportation systems (ITS), not incidental to other improvement projects, on state and connecting highways. SISP funds are available for projects with greater than fifty percent cost associated with traffic signals or ITS hardware and construction.

  • Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) - The STIP produces a four-year plan of highway and transit projects for the state of Wisconsin. Revised every year, the plan is a compilation of all highway (state or local) and transit (capital or operating) projects in urban and rural areas that propose to use federal funds.

  • ​Surface Transportation Program - Local (STP-L) - This program allocates federal funds to complete a variety of improvements to non-federal aid roads, functionally classified as rural m​inor collectors or local roads, in non-urbanized areas.

  • Surface Transportation Program - Rural (STP-R) - This program allocates federal funds to complete a variety of improvements to federal-aid-eligible rural highways (primarily county highways).

  • Surface Transportation Program - Urban (STP-U) - The STP-U allocates federal funds to complete a variety of improvements to federal-aid-eligible roads, streets and other projects in urban areas. 

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