MEASURING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BENEFITS FOR HIGHWAY DECISION MAKING IN WISCONSIN

The Wisconsin Highway 29/45/10 study was a pioneering effort to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of potential economic development benefits associated with a proposed major regional highway project and apply those findings for cost-benefit analysis. A series of five alternative design levels, for each of two alternative highway routes, was evaluated. A set of interacting transportation and economic analysis models and techniques were used to evaluate the alternatives in terms of the potential for greater business expansion, new business attraction and tourism, and auto passenger-user benefits. A rigorous cost-benefit evaluation framework, designed to avoid double counting, was used to rank the alternatives for public policy decision making.