Wis. Stat. § 59.84 — WI Code / Chapter 59 / Section 59.84
Expressways and mass transit facilities in populous counties.
Status: in_force

(1) Definitions. In this section, unless the context indicates otherwise:

(a) “Board” means the county board of supervisors in any county with a population of 750,000 or more.

(b) “Expressway” means a divided arterial highway for through traffic with full or partial control of access and, generally, with grade separations at intersections.

(bm) “Full control of access” means that the authority to control access is exercised to give preference to through traffic by providing access connections with selected public roads only and by prohibiting crossings at grade or direct private driveway connections.

(c) “Expressway project” means an integral portion of the expressway that may be put to public use independently of other expressway projects.

(d) “Expressway project budget” means the plan of financial operation embodying an estimate of proposed expenditures for an expressway project and the proposed means of financing them.

(e) “Mass transit” includes, without limitation because of enumeration, exclusive or preferential bus lanes if those lanes are limited to abandoned railroad rights-of-way or existing expressways constructed before May 17, 1978, highway control devices, bus passenger loading areas and terminal facilities, including shelters, and fringe and corridor parking facilities to serve bus and other public mass transportation passengers, together with the acquisition, construction, reconstruction and maintenance of lands and facilities for the development, improvement and use of public mass transportation systems for the transportation of passengers.

(em) “Partial control of access” means that the authority to control access is exercised to give preference to through traffic to a degree that, in addition to access connections with selected public roads, there may be some crossings at grade and some private driveway connections.

(f) “Prior expressway project expenditures” means obligations incurred and expenditures financed from funds obtained from local tax levy sources, or from the proceeds of the sale of bonds, by a municipality in the county for the acquisition and clearing of the right-of-way and construction of expressway projects which are incomplete and have not been substantially put to public use at the time the county expressway commission was created and the transfer of the function to the commission was effectuated under s. 59.965 , 1977 stats., together with any funds so financed in the state treasury under control of the department of transportation to the credit of an expressway project, any funds which the municipality, subsequent to the creation of the county expressway commission under s. 59.965 , 1977 stats., and prior to May 17, 1980, transmitted to the department of transportation for credit to an expressway project that is authorized by the county expressway commission and any funds which the municipality may, subsequent to May 17, 1980, transmit to the department of transportation for credit to an expressway project authorized by the board.

(2) Powers and duties. The board is charged with the duty and vested with all powers necessary to plan, acquire the right-of-way for and construct an expressway system and mass transit facilities in the county and to administer each expressway and mass transit project until it is certified as completed; to coordinate planning of expressways and mass transit facilities by other public agencies to the extent required to ensure that an acceptable general plan of expressways and mass transit facilities to serve the entire county will be achieved; to determine whether full control of access or partial control of access shall be exercised; to cooperate with public and private agencies in mass transit and expressway applications; including, without limitation because of enumeration, the power to contract and the following powers and duties:

(a) Plans for expressways. The board shall consider and tentatively adopt a general plan of expressways to serve the entire county. The plan shall be presented to the governing body of each municipality through which a part of the expressway system is routed for its consideration and approval. The board may by formal action modify the general plan to meet objections raised by the governing body of any municipality through which a route of the expressway passes. If the approval of the governing body is not granted within 60 days from the date of submission, the board shall present the general plan to the department of transportation, which shall hold a public hearing on that part of the plan which is located in such municipality. After the hearing, the department of transportation shall make recommendations to the board with reference to the matters objected to by the municipal governing body. Thereafter the board shall incorporate the recommendations in its general plan. When the approval of the necessary local governing bodies has been obtained or the recommendation of the department of transportation has been obtained in lieu thereof, the general plan shall be finally adopted by the board. Thereafter, the board may amend the general plan as it considers proper.

(b) Procedure upon adoption of plan. The board shall adopt tentative expressway project budgets for the units of the comprehensive plan adopted under par. (a) and in order of construction as the board considers proper. Each budget shall give reasonably detailed estimates of expenditures required to complete the expressway project and shall also give an estimate of the state and federal aid which will become available for the project. The board shall determine the amount of the county’s share of the cost of the project and the financing thereof, either from the authorization of county expressway bonds under s. 67.04 , or by determining the amounts to be included in the budgets during the construction years, or by transfer from unappropriated surplus under s. 59.60 (5) , or by any combination of the foregoing. When the board determines that county funds for an expressway project shall be financed in whole or in part from current budgets, the county auditor shall include such amounts in the proper proposed budget under s. 59.60 (5) . The board shall adopt expressway project budgets with such changes as it considers proper. When adopted, the county contribution to the expressway project shall constitute a legal appropriation and shall be expendable to the extent that expressway bonds have been authorized or money otherwise provided. The board may amend any expressway project budget and may transfer appropriations from one expressway project to another.

(c) Acceptance of gifts. The board may accept grants, conveyances and devises of land, improvements thereon and all interests whatsoever therein and bequests and donations of money to be used for expressway purposes.

(d) Acquisition of lands and interests therein.

1. The board may acquire in the name of the county or in the name of the state when so directed by the department of transportation, by donation, purchase, condemnation or otherwise, such lands, including any improvements on the lands, and any interests, easements, franchises, rights and privileges in or pertaining to lands, of whatever nature and by whomsoever owned, as the board considers necessary and required for expressway purposes, and to dispose of such lands. The board may use expressway lands for the location or relocation of any facility for mass transportation, including private or public utilities. The board may purchase or accept donation of remnants of tracts or parcels of land remaining at the time or after it has acquired by condemnation or after or coincident with its acquisition by purchase or donation portions of such tracts or parcels for expressway purposes where in the judgment of the board such action would assist in rendering just compensation to a landowner, a part of whose lands are required for expressway purposes, and would serve to minimize the overall cost of such necessary taking by the public. The county may dispose of such remnants. No lands or interest in lands that are acquired as provided in this paragraph shall be disposed of by the county without the consent of the board, and all money that is received for any such lands, improvements or interests in land, so disposed of, shall be credited to the land acquisition account as an abatement of expense. No lands acquired by the board, as provided in this subsection, in the name of or in trust for the state, shall be disposed of by the county without prior approval of the state, and the proceeds of the sale shall be remitted to the state or retained and used for expressway purposes when so directed by the department of transportation.

2. After the general plan of expressways has been adopted, the board may, for specific approved highway projects or otherwise, acquire lands and interests therein of the nature and in the manner specified in this paragraph for the right-of-way of the expressways in advance of the time of the adoption of an expressway project budget including the lands and interests. Such power may be exercised when in the judgment of the board the public interest will be served and economy effected by forestalling development of the lands which will entail greater acquisition costs if acquired at a later date. Upon such acquisition the board may improve, use, maintain or lease the lands until the same are required for expressway construction. It is recognized that there may necessarily be a period of time between the acquisition of needed lands for right-of-way and the commencement of actual site clearance and construction, but such fact shall not minimize the public purpose of the acquisition. The owners of the lands at the time of the acquisition shall have the first right to enter into leases thereof with the county until the lands are needed for expressway construction. Lands so leased for more than one year shall be subject to general property taxation during the term of the lease. All rentals shall be credited to the project or to the expressway land acquisition account. The board may provide out of funds acquired by bond issue or otherwise a land acquisition fund not in excess of $5,000,000 of expendable funds at any one time, to be used primarily for the acquisition of lands, improvements thereon and interests therein as specified in this subsection prior to the approval of the specific expressway project for which the lands or interests will be required. The fund shall be adjusted to reflect acquisition costs for lands and interests therein thereafter incorporated in specific approved expressway projects by transferring both the appropriations and the acquisition costs therefor to the proper expressway improvement expenditures account.

3. When an expressways project for which lands, improvements thereon and all interests therein have been paid for from any expressway land acquisition fund or account becomes activated by the board, the department of transportation may reimburse the expressway land acquisition fund by allocation of funds which may be made available under any state or federal statute to reimburse prior disbursements from the land acquisition fund to acquire the lands, improvements thereon or interests therein or appurtenant thereto. All state or federal funds thus received shall be used for expressway purposes.

4. The board, in acquiring lands, improvements on lands and interests in lands and appurtenant to lands, as provided in this subsection, may acquire the lands in fee simple or by easement for highway purposes as it may by order determine. In any such acquisition, the board may, and shall when requested by the department of transportation, act in the name of the state as the agent of the department of transportation and in other cases shall act in the name of the county. The board in making the acquisition may proceed under ch. 32 .

5. Whenever, before actual expressway project construction, a saving is shown to be probable in the cost of constructing a proposed new municipal or privately owned public utility, which, if presently installed in a public way in a proposed normal manner, would ultimately be interfered with by expressway construction, by initially constructing the municipal or privately owned public utility in other than a normal manner to accommodate future expressway construction, in order to effect savings by avoiding reconstruction and relocating at a later date, the board may contract with the municipal government or utility company involved for the construction of the public utility in other than normal manner and to pay to the municipal government or utility company the portion of the cost of the special construction in excess of the cost if constructed in the proposed normal manner, the funds for which may be taken from the land acquisition fund authorized in subd. 2.

6. When the board has acquired title to lands in fee either for the county or the state, the county or a person authorized by the county may use and develop any portion of the lands not directly needed for expressway-roadway purposes and which do not interfere with the primary expressway purpose, and without limitation because of enumeration may use the subsoil beneath the ground, the ground level area or air space above the ground, for parking, storage or building purposes subject to municipal land use zoning regulations except as to parking, but if the expressway right-of-way area is either on the federal interstate system or on a state trunk highway, the county shall obtain the consent of the department of transportation to the development and use prior to construction or initiation of that use. The state shall receive a share of the rentals or sale price derived from the use in the proportion that the amount of federal or state funds used in the purchase of the site bears to the total cost of the land and improvement which is the subject of the sale or rental. Such sharing shall not be made until the county or the person authorized by the county has been reimbursed for all sums expended by it, in the developments referred to in this paragraph, and such sharing shall terminate when the fair proportion of the federal and state funds allocable to the purchase of the area so developed has been reimbursed. In lieu of sharing in the proportion of the amount of federal or state funds used in the purchase of the site to the total cost of the land and improvement which is the subject of the sale or rental, the state and the county or the person authorized by the county may share the rentals or sale price on the basis of a different formula for such sharing if the department of transportation and the county agree to a different formula.

7. Before the county authorizes any person to use or develop lands under subd. 6. , the county shall make a reasonable effort to determine whether any institution of higher education in the vicinity of the lands has demonstrated to the county an interest in the use or development of the lands. The county shall give preference to proposals for the use or development of lands under subd. 6. which are submitted by an institution of higher education in the vicinity of those lands and which provide for reasonable payment to the county under a lease of or other authority to use or develop those lands.

(e) Contracts. The board may construct and administer projects under its jurisdiction, and may contract in the name of the county with the department of transportation as may be necessary under state and federal statutes to secure state and federal aid on expressway projects.

(f) Vacation, relocation, reconstruction of streets, alleys, etc.

1. Whenever the board determines that it is necessary for the proper construction of an expressway project that streets or alleys be vacated in whole or in part, or be dead-ended at the expressway right-of-way line; that existing streets or alleys be relocated; that new streets or alleys be laid out and opened; that accessory streets or ramps to serve as approaches to the expressway be constructed; that existing streets leading to or from expressway ramps be designated as one-way streets for such reasonable distance as is necessary for the proper operation of the facility; that the grade of existing streets be changed or that the traveled portion of existing streets be widened and improved so as to facilitate entrance to the expressway, it shall formulate a tentative order evidencing such requirement and file a certified copy thereof with the municipal clerk of each municipality affected by the tentative order for consideration thereof by the governing body of the municipality.

2. The governing body or the committee which the governing body designates shall hold a public hearing to consider the tentative order and shall publish in the county a class 2 notice, under ch. 985 , of the hearing.

3. If the tentative order is not approved within 90 days from the date of the filing, the board shall present the tentative order to the department of transportation, which shall hold a public hearing on the order, of which hearing the municipality in question shall be given notice. The department of transportation shall have jurisdiction to pass upon the necessity and reasonableness of the proposed tentative order, and it may approve, modify and approve or disapprove the order. The department’s decision shall be final, with no review allowed under ch. 227 .

4. If the tentative order is approved by the governing body of the municipality affected, or if it is approved or modified and approved by the department of transportation, the board may thereafter issue a final order identical with the original tentative order as modified by the department’s decision. A certified copy of the final order shall be filed with the municipal clerk of the municipality affected. Notice of the making of the order shall be published in the county as a class 1 notice, under ch. 985 .

5. The governing body of the municipality shall, within 30 days after filing, take the necessary action to comply with the order and in so doing shall not be limited by the objections of an abutting owner, and s. 66.1005 (2) shall not be applicable to any vacation or discontinuance required by the order, and any such municipality may act upon the initiative of its governing body without the necessity of obtaining the consent of an abutting owner, notwithstanding chs. 60 , 61 , 62 and 66 and s. 66.1005 (2) and any other provisions of law to the contrary.

6. If the municipality does not comply with the order within a reasonable time, the board may perform the work required by the order with its own forces or by contract and in so doing and for such purpose shall have the same powers and freedom from limitations as are vested by chs. 60 , 61 , 62 and 66 and this subsection in the governing body of the municipality.

7. The plans, specifications, proposed contracts and the appraisal of damages, if any, caused to abutting owners by compliance with the order shall be subject to approval by the board before the commencement of any work under the order but the requirement for approval of the order shall not affect the abutting property owners’ rights of appeal from the determination of damages by the commissioner of public works of the city or by any other authorized person or body.

8. The cost of performing such work as may be required by any order of the board under this subsection, including damages granted for changes of legally established grade or necessary acquisition of lands, shall be paid by the county from expressway funds as an item of the particular expressway project budget upon presentation of vouchers which have been approved for payment by the governing body of the municipality and the board. If the payment made by the county has been increased by reason of the municipality requesting an expenditure in excess of replacement or termination costs, the municipality shall reimburse the county for the excess cost. The reimbursement shall be credited by the county to abatement of the respective expense for which it was received.

(g) Relocation of municipal utilities.

1. The board, subject to approval by the public service commission after public hearing to all interested parties in cases in which the public service commission would have jurisdiction, may by order require any municipality through which an expressway project is to be constructed to remove, relocate and replace in kind or with equal facilities, or if the municipality shall request enlarged facilities, any sewer, street lighting or other like utility service the location of which interferes with construction of an expressway project. If enlarged facilities are requested the municipality shall bear that part of the cost of the improvement which exceeds the cost of the replacement of the existing facility in kind or with equal materials or facilities. However the board shall bear the excess cost where the installation of the enlarged facility is caused by designed construction and use of the expressway. A certified copy of the order shall be filed with the municipal clerk of each municipality affected and upon the filing each municipality shall within 30 days take the necessary action to comply with the order. All plans, specifications and contracts for any of the work shall be subject to approval by the board. When the work under specific contracts has been completed and approved by the governing body of the municipality and the board, the county shall pay for the work from expressway funds as an item of the particular expressway project budget. If the payments made by the county exceed the replacement costs and the additional cost was incurred at the specific request of the municipality, the municipality shall reimburse the county therefor. The reimbursement shall be credited by the county as an abatement of the expenses for which the reimbursement is received. If considered feasible and desirable by the board any work provided for in this paragraph may be performed by the board or directly by contract. In such cases the municipality in which the work is performed shall cooperate with the board.

2. With respect to any water utility of any municipality which utility, in addition to providing water for human consumption, performs governmental functions in the way of providing water for fire protection, sewerage operation, street sanitation, park bathing pools and the like, the board shall have the same powers and be subject to the same obligations as are provided in subd. 1. However, water storage tanks, water pumping stations and water reservoirs may be removed, relocated and replaced by the board only with the consent and approval of the municipality owning and operating the facilities.

(h) Private occupancy of streets; relocation.

1. All persons other than those mentioned in par. (g) lawfully having buildings, structures, works, conduits, mains, pipes, wires, poles, tracks or any other physical facilities in, over or under the public lands, streets, highways, alleys, parks or parkways of the county, or of any municipality therein, which in the opinion of the board in any manner interfere with the construction of an expressway project or the relocation or maintenance of such a project, shall upon order by the board promptly so accommodate, relocate or remove the interfering physical facilities.

2. Whenever the board proposes to consider adoption of an expressway project, it shall give notice of the proposal to each privately owned public utility or other person affected by the project indicating in the notice the action which it desires the utility or person to take, and the utility or person shall within 90 days after receipt of the notice furnish to the board its plan to comply with the request.

3. When the utility, under the board’s order, proceeds with the work in a manner satisfactory to the board, the county shall pay the utility from expressways funds upon monthly estimates of work performed and submitted for payment by the utility, two-thirds of the net cost incurred by the utility in performing the work, after deducting reasonable and fair credits for items salvaged, for any betterments made at the option of the company and for the value as carried on the utility’s books, of the used life of a facility retired from use if the service life of the new facility will extend beyond the expectancy of the one removed. The county shall not be liable to pay any value for utility facilities where use of the facilities has been abandoned for reasons other than the construction or proposed construction of an expressway project even though the installation is intact.

4. The board and any utility that is required to accommodate, relocate or remove a utility facility described in subd. 1. may by agreement provide for the respective amounts of the cost to be borne by each so as to resolve a dispute as to the allowance of charges and credits set forth in this paragraph. When the agreement has been concluded, the county shall pay out of expressway funds its share of the cost upon monthly estimates of work performed and submitted for payment by the utility.

5. If the board and any privately owned public utility are unable to agree as to the division of the costs, either may appeal to the public service commission, which shall determine the proper amounts of reimbursement according to the provisions expressed in this paragraph. Either party may petition the circuit court for review of the public service commission’s decision in the manner provided in s. 227.53 . If it is determined upon such review that the county has paid more than two-thirds of the net cost of compliance by a utility with the board’s order, any overage shall be reimbursed to the county by the utility.

6. No appeal shall delay the construction of the expressway project or compliance by the privately owned public utilities with the orders of the board. Compliance shall not prejudice the rights of either the board or the utilities in any pending appeal.

7. If a person refuses to comply with an order of the board as promulgated under this paragraph, the board may apply to the circuit court for a writ of assistance to compel compliance, and the person shall be liable for all damages caused to the board by the delay.

8. If a railroad track and an expressway project cross, ss. 195.28 to 195.29 shall apply.

9. The reimbursement of private utilities under this paragraph shall be limited to expressway projects as provided in this section.

(i) Entry on private lands. The board, its agents or servants, may enter any land in the county for the purpose of making surveys, test borings or any other type of examination necessary in the performance of its duties and shall be liable to restore the surface of the lands to the same or as good condition as existed at the time of the entry and for any other actual and demonstrable damage caused to the lands by the entry.

(j) Traffic types and speed limits. After an expressway project has been certified as completed, the public body having jurisdiction over the maintenance thereof shall have the power to regulate the type of vehicular use of such portion of the expressway except as limited by federal and state laws and regulations, and the power to fix speed limits thereon not in excess of the maximum speed limits for state trunk highways, and to provide and enforce reasonable penalties for infraction of such vehicular use regulation or speed limits. Notwithstanding s. 346.16 (2) , the use of the expressways by pedestrians, mopeds, motor bicycles, motor scooters, bicycles, electric scooters, electric personal assistive mobility devices, off-road utility vehicles, lightweight utility vehicles as defined in s. 346.94 (21) (a) 2. except when used to cross an expressway, funeral processions, and animals on foot and the hauling of oversized equipment without special permit shall be prohibited when an ordinance in conformity with this section and, with respect to prohibiting the use of electric personal assistive mobility devices, in conformity with s. 349.236 (1) (a) or (b) , and with respect to prohibiting the use of electric scooters, in conformity with s. 349.237 , is enacted by the board, but a forfeiture provided therein shall not exceed the maximum forfeiture under s. 346.17 (2) . The board may not prohibit the towing of disabled vehicles on expressways, except that the board may prohibit the towing of disabled vehicles during the peak hours of 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. as established under county ordinance and except that the board may establish procedures for and may contract for the towing of vehicles which have become disabled on the expressway.

(k) Building permits on lands in expressway routes. Each municipality through which a route of the approved expressway plan, as amended from time to time, shall pass, shall be given a formal notice of the route and a map thereof. Thereafter, when an owner of land within the right-of-way of an expressway indicated on the map applies for a building permit affecting such lands, final action on the application shall be deferred for a reasonable time not exceeding 60 days and the municipality shall within 5 days after receipt of the application notify the board thereof.

(L) Forces to construct expressway projects. The board may use its own employees to construct expressway projects in whole or in part.

(m) Rules and regulations. The board shall have power to make all rules and regulations concerning its work.

(n) Meetings; reports. The board shall hold meetings for the transaction of business under this section and all such meetings shall be open to the public. The board shall prepare annually a report of its official transactions and expenditures under this section and shall mail the statement to the governor, to the mayor of the largest city in the county and to the chief executive officer of the governing bodies of all municipalities in the county.

(o) Applicability of pars. (a) to (n). Paragraphs (a) to (n) also apply, as far as applicable, to the exercise of the powers and duties of the board in the planning and construction of mass transit facilities.

(4) Transfer of prior expressway studies and reports. The county expressway and transportation commission that is created under s. 59.965 (2) , 1977 stats., and the governmental authorities of the largest city in the county shall transfer and deliver to the board the original or certified copy of all maps and engineering studies and reports pertaining to an expressways system in the city and county, together with all contracts pertaining to the creation and construction of expressways. Upon demand by the board the largest city in the county with the approval of the common council shall execute and deliver to the county quitclaim deeds of all lands acquired, dedicated or owned by the city and needed for the purpose of right-of-way for the expressways, if the cost of the lands was included in the determination of prior expressway expenditures.

(6) Reimbursement for prior expressway financing. Municipalities shall be reimbursed for prior expressway project expenditures. Expressway projects under construction at the time the county expressway and transportation commission was created and the transfer of functions to the commission was effectuated under s. 59.965 , 1977 stats., shall be completed by the board. Such municipalities shall be reimbursed for prior expressway expenditures and obligations incurred for the cost of right-of-way acquisition and clearance, construction engineering, and actual construction to the extent of the municipalities’ contribution from tax levy or bond funds. Each such municipality shall calculate its contribution and certify the contribution with full data to the board. It shall then be subject to consideration, audit and approval by the board. If approved by the board, reimbursement shall be made on a 10-year installment basis by levying a tax against all the municipalities of the county on an equalized valuation basis, and offsetting the amount thereof to the municipalities entitled to reimbursement.

(7) Agreements for use of federal aid to retire maturities. The department of transportation and the board may enter into an agreement providing that when the proceeds of bonds issued by the county are expended in the improvement of a portion of the federal aid highway system as a part of the comprehensive expressway system in the county, and are so expended under ch. 84 , and in compliance with section 5 of the federal aid highway act of 1950, or acts amendatory to such section, and regulations applicable thereto, the sum of money derived from federal aid for highways which may be authorized by the congress and apportioned to this state for any fiscal year as shall be stipulated in the agreement may be applied to aid in retirement of annual maturities of the principal indebtedness of such bonds, and that to the extent that federal aid can be claimed and received by the state for such purpose, it will upon receipt be paid to the county. Any money so paid shall be deposited by the county in the sinking fund provided for the retirement of the bond issue of which the bonds formed a part.

(8) Agreements for state aid to retire maturities. The department of transportation may enter into a contract with the board providing that, to the extent that the proceeds of bonds issued by the county are expended under ch. 84 in the improvement of state trunk highways or connecting highways, in addition to the agreed county share of the improvement and for which the county has not been or will not be reimbursed with federal funds, such sum as may be approved by the department of transportation in any fiscal year will be paid to the county to aid in retirement of the annual maturities of the principal indebtedness of the bonds from funds appropriated and available to the department of transportation for the improvement of state trunk highways or connecting highways. Payments may be made under the agreement, before or after the bonds mature, from funds appropriated and available to the department of transportation for the improvement of state trunk highways or connecting highways after making provision for adequate maintenance and traffic service, but this section or the agreement shall not constitute a commitment on the part of this state or the county to provide the funds. Any money so paid shall be deposited by the county in its sinking fund created for the purpose of payment of the bond issue of which the bonds formed a part.

(9) Staff.

(a) Other departments and officers. The staff of the county highway department, under the direction of the county highway commissioner, shall perform all technical work required by the board. Any municipality having an expressway staff shall, upon request of the county board, transfer the staff to the county, and the agents and employees of the municipal staff shall thereupon become integrated into county civil service in the county highway department. The board may hire upon a contract basis such expert consultant services as it considers necessary to assist in the planning of the expressway system.

(b) Records and equipment. The board shall provide a suitable place where the maps, plans, documents, and records of the board that relate to this section shall be kept, subject to public inspection at all reasonable hours and under reasonable regulations that the board may prescribe.

(10) Maintenance and operation.