Can City Make Fond du Lac Avenue Safer?

The City of Milwaukee has the opportunity to redesign a “speedway” leading into Downtown. But will it follow through?

While expressing concern, the Common Council’s Public Works Committee recommended approval Thursday of a preliminary engineering effort to rebuild W. Fond du Lac Ave. between N. 12th St. and N. 19th St. Actual construction work could take place in 2026.

The 0.61-mile section, a four-lane, divided street, is part of one of the busiest transportation arteries in the city owing to its diagonal orientation to the ordinal street grid. The street is technically known as Wisconsin State Highway 145, a designation that brings with it state and federal resources for reconstruction as well as restrictions on what form that rebuilding takes. It’s just west of Interstate 43.

Department of Public Works major projects manager David Tapia said the current vision isn’t for any major changes and described the $7.9 million project as a “mill and overlay” effort that would replace the roadway.

“Don’t you think we should do a little bit more?” asked Alderman Robert Bauman, the committee chair.

 

“It’s an important area for the district,” said Alderman Russell W. Stamper, II, referencing his aldermanic district in which the project is entirely inside. The street straddles the Triangle and Lindsay Heights neighborhoods.

Bauman said he views Fond du Lac Avenue as a speedway. “Absolutely,” affirmed Stamper.

Tapia said the project wasn’t yet at the point to consider major changes. “This gets us through what they call the final scoping [certification],” he said, describing it as a 30% design point. The initial effort is to cost $555,900, with the city contributing $138,976. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is the lead agency.

“When I am going to be able to see the design and make sure you guys understand the street?” asked Stamper. Tapia didn’t have a specific date, but said eventually there would be a public comment period.

The specific segment, according to a state database, has not had any fatalities in the past decade. But if one additional block is included at each end of the project, it shows five crash-related fatalities.

Starting at W. 17th St. and extending west to N. 51st St. the street is part of the city’s “pedestrian high-injury network.” The section between N. 20th St. and N. Sherman Blvd. is one of the 10 most dangerous corridors in the city for pedestrians according to Milwaukee’s 2019 pedestrian plan.

Part of the reason the section to be rebuilt appears safer than the section to the west can be attributed to what isn’t there: buildings and people. That section of W. Fond du Lac Ave. was to be part of the Park West Freeway. And while the freeway was never built, hundreds of houses and buildings were demolished in the 1960s. Then a suburban-style roadway was built approximately four decades ago after the freeway was canceled. The handful of buildings that partially fill the excess space, including the Milwaukee County Transit System headquarters, are substantially set back from the street. A more traditional urban form returns to the corridor west of N. 20th St.

The section to be rebuilt sees between 19,500 and 27,700 vehicles per day according to multiple traffic counters visible on a WisDOT website.

Even if the city and state don’t make traffic calming improvements to W. Fond du Lac Ave., a nearby street will see upgrades. Construction is expected to take place in 2023 on a road diet and reconstruction of W. Walnut St. from N. 12th St. to N. 20th St. The two corridors intersect at N. 13th St.

Aerial Images