The biennial budget that was passed this summer substantially increased the investment the state will make in repairing and restoring rail lines.

None of the projects are going to immediately impact the Milwaukee area in any noticeable way (besides creating jobs for a lot of Milwaukee-based Wisconsin & Southern Railroad, WSOR, employees).  The long-term impact of upgrading the state’s railroad infrastructure will be significant.  Upgrading track sections that are nearly 100 years old (an era of much smaller rail cars) will allow for greater speed and reliability, which translates into cheaper shipping costs, fewer trucks on the highway, less congestion, and less wasted fuel.  As Milwaukee is well served by numerous rail lines, this will only serve to make the city of Milwaukee an even more attractive place to do business.

The last budget included funding of $22 million, so edging above $30 million is a sizable 36% increase in funding.  Something that WSOR asked for, and now plans to immediately move on.

WSOR went as far as to produce a short documentary exhibiting their problems with the conditions of rails in Wisconsin.

The press release and more information can be found on the WisDOT website.  Information on the exact grants and loans to be provided has been made available.

Governor Jim Doyle today announced ten state awards totaling $30,596,082 that will be used to construct freight rail-related facilities, and preserve and upgrade rail infrastructure as part of overall efforts to support job growth and Wisconsin’s agricultural economy.

“Freight rail plays a critical role in Wisconsin’s transportation system, moving some 150 million tons of commodities every year,” Governor Doyle said.  “These grants and loans will help retain jobs and spur economic growth in many rural communities while strengthening our agricultural economy.”

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) is administering three loan awards totaling $3,382,944 through the Freight Railroad Infrastructure Improvement Program (FRIIP).  A revolving loan program, FRIIP awards are provided to private industries, railroads, and local governments to improve rail infrastructure, highway/grade crossings, and to construct new rail-served facilities – with the overall goal to boost economic development and jobs.  As FRIIP loans are repaid, the dollars are used to help fund new projects.  Most of the work on the recently approved FRIIP loan projects will begin this fall and continue in the spring of 2010.

Seven grant awards totaling $27,213,138 are being distributed through the state’s Freight Railroad Preservation Program (FRPP).  FRPP grants cover up to 80 percent of the cost of projects designed to preserve rail service or rehabilitate fixed facilities on publicly owned rail lines.  Award recipients provide the 20 percent local share.

Since the FRIIP program was approved by the Legislature in 1993, WisDOT has provided 93 loans through the program totaling over $100 million.  Another $78 million in FRPP grants have been awarded to local governments and railroads since 1993.  Twelve freight railroads operate in Wisconsin on a system of over 3,600 route miles of track and handle some 2.5 million rail cars each year.

Well it’s not quite as amazing as the original video, they produced another one of the recent reverse trip.  Enjoy.

Lake Express High Speed Ferry – Winter Berth Trip – HD timelapse from LEXHSF on Vimeo

“A few visible landmarks and points of interest along the way include:
- Milwaukee skyline with Milwaukee Art Museum
- The Daniel Hoan Memorial Bridge
- Henry Maier Festival Park – home to Summerfest
- Milwaukee’s Third Ward
- Milwaukee’s downtown post office
- Amtrak rail departure bound for Chicago
- the Harley Davidson Motorcycle Museum
- Santiago Calatrava designed [sic] 6th Street viaduct
- Former site of Sprecher Brewing (crest visible on stacks)
- Milwaukee high rise / Marquette Interchange
- Coal barges bound for Milwaukee’s power plant.
- The Potawatomi Casino torch”

The Journal Sentinel article leads off by saying the idea has “crashed and burned” because the mayors of St. Francis and Cudahy like the bridge. Which is all well and good, except last I checked the bridge is in Milwaukee so perhaps talking to Milwaukee elected officials would have been a good idea? Being an interstate, it is state-owned, but to deny Milwaukeeans a comment on the issue is a little too much.

A critical aspect of the discussion that the Journal Sentinel article ignored was that any proposal will not simply include tearing down the bridge. It will include replacing the bridge. Certainly simply removing the bridge would be a fiasco, replacing it does not have to be if street-level lift bridges are placed at the right points.

We have come up with seven good reasons to replace the bridge with a street grid system.

1. The bridge does not generate economic development along the land it runs, a replacement that was integrated with the city street grid would. The increased traffic would be great for businesses, both existing and new. The increased accessibility would further encourage more residential development in the area.

2. The bridge is going to be costly to repair, and will continue to cost taxpayers money in the future. Replacing it with a street grid based system will be more cost-effective both now and in the future.

3. The bridge is a risk for MMSD. This reality was driven home in 2000 when the bridge partially collapsed directly above MMSD’s Jones Island facility (the end destination of your toilet).

The Hoan Bridge was the site of a near disaster in December 2000 after two of three support beams failed, causing nearly 200 feet along the northbound lanes to buckle and sag by three to four feet. It left the span in a near collapsed state. In late December 2000, demolition experts used explosives to remove damaged sections of the bridge that crossed over the MMSD’s Jones Island treatment plant.

“We were genuinely concerned it was going to fall on critical conduits of the MMSD plant, cutting off electricity to our facility,” Shafer said.

The DOT spent more than $16 million to demolish and rebuild the damaged area before the Hoan Bridge reopened for traffic in November 2001.

4. Never the “Bridge To Nowhere” ever again. While the bridge was built and left unconnected for a number of years early in its life, it was also closed for almost an entire year in 2001 following the partial collapse. Replacing the bridge with the street grid will give drivers options in the event of one road closing.

5. Replacing the bridge will still leverage existing assets like the Lake Parkway, but will also allow easier access to areas like Walker’s Point/Fifth Ward and the south side of the Third Ward. At the same time synchronized lights should make getting downtown just as easy.

6. We’ve done this before, and have been largely successful. The conversion of the Park East Freeway, an elevated freeway on the north side of downtown, was a huge success when you look at traffic flow. It’s just as easy to get down McKinley Avenue as it was to get down the freeway. We can apply the same principles from the Park East Freeway freeway-to-boulevard conversion to the Hoan Bridge.

7. The Hoan Bridge is currently inaccessible for bicyclists and pedestrians. Any replacement will presumably serve both of those groups better, as well as being better for mass transit riders. Currently riding the bus over the bridge may be a pleasure, unless you need to get to somewhere in the middle where you are forced to back track. A street grid solution will allow riders to get to more locations much more easily.