Beneficiaries of WisDOT contract give dollars to Doyle while pact is negotiated

Feb. 6, 2006 -- Representatives of firms benefiting from the $8 million I-94 North-South design services contract plunked down a total of $8,500 in campaign donations for Gov. Doyle on the day or the day after a Doyle fund-raiser was hosted by a top Wisconsin Department of Transportation official, records show.

Milwaukee Transportation Partners, a joint venture between HNTB and CH2M Hill, already had been selected for the I-94 work, but the entity's contract with WisDOT was being negotiated at the time of the Sept. 8 fund-raiser, hosted by WisDOT Secretary Ruben Anthony.

Officials of CH2M Hill, HNTB and various subcontractors on the project put cash into the governor's campaign coffers. All of the donations reported on Doyle's campaign fund statement are dated Sept. 9, so it is difficult to tell if the contributions were made at the fund-raiser or the day after.

The State Ethics Board has said Anthony did nothing illegal in inviting the firms to the fund-raiser.

HNTB was the largest contract beneficiary donor to Doyle within that Sept.8-9 timeframe, campaign records show. HNTB honchos Scott Butzen, of Pewaukee; Charles Dulic, of East Lansing, Mich.; Kenneth Graham, of Delafield; and Robert Fogle, of Overland Park, Kansas, shelled out a total of $3,000.

HNTB's Wisconsin vice president Brian Swenson told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that only HNTB Chief Operating Officer Scott Butzen attended the fund-raiser, but apparently skipped the part about other HNTBers who sent checks.

CH2M Hill officials Van Walling, of Germantown; Brad Heimlich, of Waukesha; and Patrick Klampe, of Menomonee Falls, gave a total of $1,500.

Subcontractors on the project also enriched Doyle's campaign fund. They include Martha Love, of Milwaukee, who is listed as retired on Doyle's campaign finance report, but who is identified on I-94 contract documents as president of Association B, LLC, an MTP subcontractor. Love donated $1,500 Sept. 9.

Mathew Tharaniyil, of New Berlin, president of Bloom Consultants, LLC another subcontractor, donated $1,000. Officials of Daar Engineering gave a total of $1,000, and and Edwards & Associates employee gave $500.

WisDOT expands I-94 highway project again
Roadbuilder consultants get $8 million deal

Jan. 23 -- The Wisconsin Department of Transportation has again quietly expanded the I-94 North-South reconstruction project boundaries, records show.

The new western boundary is I-894 at 35th St., according to the department's new $8 million contract with Milwaukee Transportation Partners. The project's western boundary previously was 27th St..

Earlier, WisDOT pushed the project boundaries from the Mitchell Interchange north to Holt Ave., and pushed the western boundary from the Mitchell Interchange to 27th and I-894.

The new two-phase design engineering services contract also calls for MTP to study the feasibility of building an interchange at I-94 and Drexel Ave. in Oak Creek, and of adding lanes to the airport spur.

Milwaukee Transportation Partners is a joint venture between the politcally-connected HNTB and CH2M Hill. HNTB and CH2M Hill are to be the top-paid subcontractors under the contract, which divides the work into two phases.

The contract, while assigning different tasks to CH2M Hill and HNTB, rewards them in remarkably similar ways. CH2M Hill is to be paid $3,127,834 under the pact while HNTB is to be paid $3,127,064, a difference of $770.

Both firms are major donors to Gov. Jim Doyle's campaign fund, and both were represented at a September fundraiser hosted by WisDOT's number two man, Ruben Anthony. The fund-raiser was held in September, while the 400-page I-94 North-South contract was being negotiated.

MTP also is the entity that won the preliminary and final design contracts for the Marquette Interchange reconstruction project. Those two contracts have been amended a total of 121 times and have risen in value from $36.2 million to $59.5 million, an increase of $23.3 million, or 64%, according to WisDOT documents.

CH2M Hill originally was to be paid $11.4 million under the design contracts, but amendments pushed that amount up to $17.4 million, a 53% increase.

HNTB originally also was to be paid $11.4 million, but amendments pushed that total to $18.3 million, a 61% increase.

WisDOT to re-examine Racine-Kenosha I-94 water issues
Decade old report falls short on runoff evaluation

Jan. 3, 2006 -- The Wisconsin Department of Transportation's 10-year-old environmental assessment for the I-94 interchange reconstruction project in Racine and Kenosha counties does not adequately consider the project's impacts on area waterways, a WisDOT official has acknowledged.

Runoff from the new, larger interchanges will flow into area waterways, including the Root River and Lake Michigan, which supplies water to millions of people.

The admission of the assessment's shortcomings was a sharp turnaround for WisDOT, which insisted as recently as October that its decade-old evaluation of water impacts was adequate.

Now, however, Project Development Manager John Oimoen said concerns about water quality are "valid."

"The 1996 environmental assessment EA did adequately address storm water impacts based on the regulations at that time," he wrote to Citizens Allied for Sane Highways*. "New regulations since that time mandate that more debris and other pollutants that wash off roadways be removed from runoff before it reaches receiving waters."

The department will re-examine the impacts under current regulations, he wrote. The department's re-evaluation of the entire Environmental Assessment is expected to take about a year, he said.

When CASH first inquired about the impacts, in October, Oimoen insisted the Environmental Assessment was adequate.

"The environmental assessment or ‘EA’ does consider impacts to water quality and water drainage," he wrote, adding: "The EA is a thoroughly research document that included extensive community involvement. It has received all necessary federal, state and local approvals."

Citizens Allied for Sane Highways is a coalition formed to oppose freeway expansion in Milwaukee. CASH inquired into the Racine-Kenosha project because of its potential impact on Lake Michigan, which supplies Milwaukee's water.

The interchange reconstruction project is the first step in rebuilding I-94 from the south of the Illinois state line to either the Mitchell Interchange or Holt Ave. in Milwaukee. While the freeway reconstruction itself will require a more detailed environmental impact statement, WisDOT says rebuilding the interchanges in Racine and Kenosha merits only the lesser Environmental Assessment.

The interchange project will consume 80 acres of farm land, 17.6 acres of wetlands, and 28 acres of upland habitat, according to the Environmental Assessment.

There is no significant environmental impact to the project, WisDOT says.

*full disclosure: storyhill.net editor Gretchen Schuldt is CASH co-chair

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