About Us
The Central Wisconsin Interstate Alliance (CWIA) is a coalition of businesses, economic development organizations, and other entities committed to the safety and economic prosperity of I-39/90/94 from Madison to Wisconsin Dells. Furthermore, we understand that improving this corridor is a gateway to economic growth for the entire state.
A safe, modern I-39/90/94 bolsters the products grown and manufactured in our state and facilitates access to Wisconsin’s renowned outdoor recreation and tourist destinations. Moreover, modernizing the corridor is about safety and reducing crashes and loss of life.
CWIA will work with WisDOT and other stakeholders to keep a modernization project for this vital route moving forward. In the short-term, progress includes a final Environmental Impact Statement from the Federal Highway Administration and approval by the state’s Transportation Projects Committee this fall, followed by the project’s inclusion in the final 2025-27 budget.
CWIA Members
- Association of Wisconsin Tourism Attractions
- Baker Tilly
- Cascade Development
- City of Sun Prairie
- Construction Business Group
- DeForest Yards
- DeForest Windsor Chamber of Commerce
- Destinations Wisconsin
- Holiday Inn at The American Center
- International Union of Operating Engineers Local 139
- Iron Workers Local 383
- Madison Region Economic Partnership (MadREP)
- Midwest Food Products Association
- North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters
- Portage Area Chamber of Commerce
- Tommy Bartlett Exploratory
- Tourism Federation of Wisconsin
- Town of Delton
- Transportation Development Association of Wisconsin
- UW Health
- Wangard Partners
- Wisconsin Agri-Business Association
- Wisconsin Dells Visitors & Convention Bureau
- Wisconsin Fuel & Retail Association
- Wisconsin Laborers’ District Council
- Wisconsin Motor Carriers Association
- Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park™ Camp-Resort, Wisconsin Dells
- More partners to come!
Wisconsin’s Commerce Corridor
The I-39/90/94 Corridor connects major population centers—Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, Minneapolis—to Wisconsin’s popular outdoor recreation and tourist destinations. It is also a primary long-haul truck route.
The State of Wisconsin has already modernized and expanded I-39/90 from the Wisconsin-Illinois state line to Madison. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is now studying improvements to I-39/90/94 from Madison to Wisconsin Dells as the next leg in this corridor extending from the state line.
Vital to the region and our state’s economic health, this route between Madison and Wisconsin Dells is reaching the end of its useful life. Traffic volumes along the study corridor are increasing, causing vehicle congestion and backups on the Interstate and decreasing travel time reliability. Crash rates, especially at interchanges, exceed the statewide average.
I-39/90/94 from Madison to Wisconsin Dells – What you need to know:
- I-39/90/94 improvement project alternatives are limited to on- and near-alignment alternatives (no bypass).
- Upwards of $100 billion of freight travels through the corridor annually, with trucks accounting for about 25% of the daily traffic.
- Freight traffic volumes grew 12-16% from 2019-21 and are expected to continue growing. The WisDOT State Freight Plan projects truck freight tonnage statewide will grow 12% by 2030 and 50% by 2050.
- Corridor traffic continues to increase, causing vehicle congestion and backups and decreasing travel time reliability.
- Tourism in the counties along the study corridor generates more than $4.7 billion in economic impact, almost 20% of the state’s total.
- 84 of the 113 structures (bridges and overpasses) in the corridor will be older than 50 years by 2030, and 85% will need replacement or significant deck work before 2050.
- Since 2008, two flooding events have resulted in Interstate closures, impacting vital commerce and emergency services connections.
- In the absence of an improvement project, 26 of the next 30 years will see pavement maintenance projects somewhere in the corridor. This nonstop construction and perhaps emergency Band-Aids will present ongoing travel delays and commercial and recreational traffic congestion.
Bottom Line: Wisconsin has a choice. We can systematically modernize the aging I-39/90/94 Corridor from Madison to Wisconsin Dells, investing in our future and maximizing the ROI of the dollars spent to update the corridor from the Illinois-Wisconsin border to Madison. Or we limp along one mile and one bridge at a time, endangering lives and capping our state’s economy.
Corridor Quick Stats
corridor / year
that is truck
along corridor / year
The Project
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is studying the I-39/90/94 Corridor from Madison to Wisconsin Dells. The 67-mile study corridor spans Dane, Columbia, Sauk, and Juneau counties but doesn’t include the Wisconsin River Bridges in Columbia County, which WisDOT anticipates will be reconstructed from 2024 to 2027.
As part of the study, WisDOT will analyze alternatives to address existing and future traffic demands, safety issues, aging and outdated corridor infrastructure, and corridor resiliency. Project alternatives are limited to on- and near-alignment alternatives (no bypass).
In addition to 15 existing interchanges, the study includes the evaluation of two new interchanges in Madison – one at Milwaukee Street and the other at Hoepker Road.
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