Governor Jim Doyle has awarded $3.29 million in transportation grants for projects to improve the airport and lone county highway on Madeline Island, WI.
This goal of the funding, said Doyle, is to help improve access to the island, which sits in Lake Superior, near Ashland, in northwestern Wisconsin.
Governor Doyle announced a $2.1-million federal grant to repave nearly the entire length of County Hwy. H, the island's only county highway. The funds are provided by the Surface Transportation Rural Program (STP-R), which aims to improve federally eligible highways in rural areas. Governor Doyle thanked Congressman Dave Obey for helping secure the funding.
The governor also announced $1.19 million in grants to fund several projects to improve the island's airport.
They include engineering and construction of a building for snow-removal equipment; building two snow-removal bays; planning and design engineering for reconstructing the airport's primary runway, parking lot, and hangar taxiways; and buying aggregate for future expansion projects.
The projects are scheduled to be completed by November 2009.
The state Department of Transportation (WisDOT) is providing $30,000 for the project, the Town of La Pointe is contributing $30,000, and the Federal Aviation Administration is providing $1,133,761 for the projects.
