The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (DOT) has scrapped its plans to build a $1.4 billion double-decker freeway through the heart of the city’s West Side.
But it is moving ahead with its $1.1 billion plan to expand I-94’s Stadium Interchange from 16th Street to 70th Street with additional lanes.
The project wasn’t included in the current state budget, but it could be placed in the next biennial budget, to be introduced by Gov. Scott Walker in early 2017.
But some local elected officials say it’s a waste of money that should be invested in repairing local roads around the state and expanding transit.
On Wednesday, March 30, local officials and concerned groups organized by state Rep. Daniel Riemer (D-Milwaukee) and the Coalition for More Responsible Transportation held a public forum at the Hunger Task Force on Hawley Road, which would be heavily impacted by the project.
Riemer said the project would have an “incredibly damaging” impact on the neighborhoods, reduce property values and is at odds with data showing that Wisconsinites are driving less and want more mass transit options.
Riemer said the state’s Transportation Fund is already stretched thin, since about 20% of it goes toward repaying debts already incurred and state officials won’t look at new funding streams for road projects.
“If we pursue this project in particular, and continue as a state to pursue projects like this, spending is only going to up and go up and go up,” Riemer said. “We’re not going to be able to prioritize what matters most, fixing our local roads, investing in transit and doing what makes the most sense for our community.”
Riemer and other officials urged residents to make their opinions known to the DOT by April 15, the conclusion of the public comment period on the project.
No Additional Public Transit
The DOT has been focusing on rehabbing this 3.5-mile stretch of I-94 for the past few years, arguing that it is at the end of its life and needs major repairs and expansion to accommodate heavy traffic moving through Milwaukee. Its proposed alternatives ranged from the $1.4 billion double-decker expansion through Story Hill, as well as a more modest plan to repair it and make safety improvements in its current footprint for $379 million.
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The DOT’s preferred alternative is an $852 million option to rebuild and expand this section of the freeway. The costs will rise to $1.1 billion when debt payments are factored in.
This alternative expands this east-west section of I-94 from six to eight lanes at grade in the western portion and slightly off its current footprint in the eastern segment. The Hawley Road interchange would be partially shut down, eliminating the westbound exit ramp and eastbound entrance ramp. The existing interchange at Mitchell Boulevard would be removed and replaced with a new local road interchange within the Stadium Interchange, according to the DOT’s 946-page Final Environmental Impact Statement, which can be found on the DOT’s website.
The project would require the taking of 73 acres of land, eight homes, 10 commercial properties and two vacant commercial properties, and would construct sound barriers as well, according to the document.
No additional public transit is included in the plan, although it could incorporate local buses or Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) routes to mitigate congestion. State law also requires DOT to give due consideration to establishing bikeways and walkways as part of its reconstruction projects.
DOT spokesman Michael Pyritz told the Shepherd that the project doesn’t include funding for additional public transit. That would come from a different funding stream.
“We certainly include and work with all of the different modes of transportation, but the thing that keeps coming out [in public forums]—if you don’t build this then we can pay for more buses—that’s not a one-to-one corollary,” Pyritz said.
But Karyn Rotker, an American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin (ACLU) attorney, said the DOT is missing an opportunity to expand public transit to help Milwaukeeans, especially low-income and minority residents who don’t own cars and wouldn’t benefit from the freeway project. She said the freeway expansion would benefit suburban commuters whose neighborhoods wouldn’t be harmed by the construction.
“We believe the project should have been a combined highway-transit alternative that repaired I-94 and made targeted safety improvements, but did not expand capacity—and that included public transportation, such as Bus Rapid Transit, as part of the ‘reasonable alternative’ considered and developed,” Rotker emailed.
Rotker represented the Black Health Coalition of Wisconsin and the Milwaukee Inner-city Congregations Allied for Hope (MICAH), which sued the DOT in federal court, arguing that the DOT’s $1.7 billion Zoo Interchange expansion, which didn’t include transit, violated federal law because it failed to adequately study the social and environmental impacts of its plan. In 2014, the DOT and the groups agreed to a $13.5 million settlement to expand bus routes out to the suburbs.
Rotker said that while the Zoo Interchange settlement doesn’t directly impact the Stadium Interchange project, “we do think they should be following its reasoning.”
At the same time the state DOT is moving forward with its freeway expansion, the Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) is studying a 7-mile east-west corridor Bus Rapid Transit plan, which would connect Downtown with the Milwaukee Regional Medical Complex and the Milwaukee County Research Park. It’s holding public information sessions on Tuesday, April 12, and Thursday, April 14. For more information, go to eastwestbrt.com.
Milwaukee Officials Want Funds for Local Road Repair
Milwaukee officials at last Wednesday’s forum argued that the $1.1 billion to be spent on the freeway project was irresponsible and should be invested instead in repairing local roads around the state and in expanding public transit where appropriate.
Milwaukee Common Council President Michael Murphy, who represents the West Side, said that the city has argued for more money for local road repairs, but the state has cut this funding instead over the past several years.
“This has had a detrimental impact on our ability to make repairs to the roads and our city streets, whether it be in Wauwatosa or West Allis or Milwaukee or Waupaca,” Murphy said.
State Rep. Evan Goyke (D-Milwaukee), who represents the neighborhoods north of I-94, and Riemer, who represents the neighborhoods south of it, have been lobbying state officials not to spend the $1.1 billion on the Milwaukee project.
Goyke said he’d just returned from meeting with mayors in northeast Wisconsin to explain why the project impacts their communities.
“If we commit to spending this $1.1 billion that means less money, less for everybody, not just for us and our potholes, but for Green Bay, for Manitowoc, for Sheboygan,” Goyke said.
While the Stadium Interchange expansion wasn’t included in the previous budget—which Goyke called a “slight political victory”—he said there are powerful special interest groups who are already lobbying for its inclusion in the next biennial budget.
He predicted that the project would be on the DOT’s wish list for 2017.
“It might have been moved up a couple notches,” Goyke said Wednesday.
The DOT’s Pyritz told the Shepherd he didn’t know if the project would be included in the department’s proposed budget for 2017-2019.
Public Comment until April 15
To weigh in on the DOT’s planned $1.1 billion Stadium Interchange reconstruction, send your comments to:
Jason Lynch, Project Supervisor
WisDOT Southeast Region
141 NW Barstow St.
Waukesha, WI 53187
Or:
Comments must be received or postmarked by Friday, April 15.
