La Crosse’s unapologetically active road construction season greets track meet visitors

From all over Wisconsin, they come to La Crosse for the WIAA state track and field meet.

Every year those fans are greeted with orange cones, barrels and barricades that indicate closed streets.

La Crosse Mayor Tim Kabat says there’s really nothing wrong with that.

“I think the orange cone is a good indicator of progress,” Kabat said. “The ongoing complaint is still, ‘Do more mayor. You need to fix more.’ So, I think that, in the back of all of our minds, we need to get caught up on the backlog of these projects.”

The mayor thinks visitors for the meet this weekend will likely appreciate the few very problematic areas along La Crosse Street that the city resurfaced this spring.

Total miles under construction in La Crosse this year is three to four times what has been typical in past years.

The city’s fixing about eight miles of roads this construction season. Prior to 2017, the city had typically repaired two to three miles of streets every year.

Kabat says the city could do even more with a larger streets department. He’s putting together plans to add streets employees to the city’s spending plans for next year.

“If we want to make an investment, rather than just contracting out, should we think about hiring more staff?” Kabat asked. “And that is under consideration.”

As for the rest of La Crosse Street, Kabat recently told WIZM talks with the DOT on a fix for have been productive.

Without giving any details, he said an announcement on a La Crosse Street repair project could be coming soon.