Gov. Tony Evers signed into law demand for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WDOT) to maintain a set of highway projects for potential design-build efforts while vetoing two other bills aimed at the department.
Assembly Bill 275 was signed into law by the governor and is now 2019’s Wisconsin Act 18. The law creates a new office within the WDOT dedicated to streamlining project delivery, enhancing efficiency, and fueling cost-effective delivery of design-build transportation projects. The WDOT must now maintain at least five design-build suitable projects.
What did not pass were Assembly Bills 273 and 284. The former would have required the WDOT to maintain a list of at least seven subbase materials required for highway improvements and allowed builders to base bids on that list unless otherwise specified. Evers objected to what he called unnecessary and cumbersome law changes that add unnecessary administrative duties.
“As acknowledged in the bill’s nonstatutory provision, the department already specified a list of equivalent materials for road projects,” Evers said. “Department engineers likewise already determine what subbases are appropriate for each individual project.”
AB 284 was rejected both for a similar claim of unnecessary laws, as well as perceived encroachment on the Department of Administration’s authority. It would have required the WDOT to create a discretionary merit compensation award program to grant lump sum awards to classified employees under that program as currently administered by the Department of Administration. Evers pointed out the WDOT already participates in that program and that the bill would have diminished Administration’s authority to regulate state employee compensation as laid out in the compensation plan.