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Wisconsin’s ag road improvement program open for new applications

Wisconsin’s Agricultural Road Improvement Program is now open for new grant applications. 

Farmer and State Representative Travis Tranel is one of the program’s original authors.  He tells Brownfield the 150 million dollars in each of the last two state budget cycles is going to be extremely valuable for moving ag products on and off the farms.  He says farmers should encourage their town boards to use the simple form and apply for the grants. “Even if you’re not successful in getting the grant, the applications themselves are what we point to in the next budget cycle to say hey, look, there is a significant need in rural Wisconsin for this funding.”

Tranel says in this new round, some of the 150 million dollars was earmarked for culverts and short bridges. “Most of that if not all of that is going to be in rural Wisconsin so the way I look at it is it’s still an improvement, mostly to town roads and work that needs to be done so not really that big of a deal. More of a technicality, I would say.”

The window for applying for ARIP grant funding opened Monday, and will award 50 million dollars in grants.  Unsuccessful applications will be considered in the next round of 70 million dollars.  Tranel says there are about 62-thousand miles of town roads in Wisconsin, and many can’t handle the weight and traffic they’re getting. 

The ARIP program helps bring town roads with weight limits serving agriculture to specifications where they will no longer need to have load restrictions.