Design Work Could Bring Two-Way Traffic to Farwell, Prospect

N. Prospect Avenue in 2016 when closed to traffic. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Planning is underway to rebuild Prospect and Farwell avenues on Milwaukee’s East Side. The final result could include two-way traffic, transit improvements and other safety enhancements.

“This is very exciting,” said Alderman Jonathan Brostoff to the Public Works Committee on Sept. 7. “We know what it looks like now and all of the problems we’ve seen. People driving inappropriately fast, doing the ‘Milwaukee slide’ and stuff like that.”

The heavily traveled one-way couplet connects Downtown with the Lower East Side, Northpoint and Upper East Side neighborhoods. N. Prospect Avenue features several high-density residential buildings, while southbound N. Farwell Avenue has a wide array of commercial tenants, often at the base of mixed-use buildings.

The City of Milwaukee will be leading the design work on the project despite it being formally part of Wisconsin Highway 32 and under the oversight of Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT). Federal funds will pay for much of the project.

“We could be talking about things like concrete protected bike lanes, we could be talking about two ways, we could be talking about all sorts of things,” said the alderman. “This really could be one of the most pedestrian-friendly, transit-rich corridors in the whole city as opposed to what it is now where people are going way too fast, it’s dangerous, we have multiple accidents or near accidents happening every week and tons of complaints coming with people with significant mobility challenges and a large elderly population over there.”

“Absolutely,” said City Engineer Kevin Muhs. “Anytime we got pavement replacement or reconstruction projects with the state on connecting highways or, of course, our own projects, we look at that as an opportunity to take a completely fresh look at a street… We want complete streets for the whole city.”

Muhs said a February community meeting about safety concerns showed interest in making changes. “There is just a lot of interest in traffic calming and alternative modes and what could the street look like.” The city reduced the speed limit to 25 mph from 30 mph as a result of community feedback and a pedestrian fatality and is working on other alterations.

He said the city has already requested the state study converting one or both streets to two-way traffic. “No matter the results of that study, we need to look at how we are allocating space and right of way in that area,” said Muhs.

“Right now, the options are unlimited until we get into the design process with [WisDOT], traffic volumes, crash [data]. You start to find where you are getting the same types of crashes at the same intersections, pedestrian needs, business needs, etc,” said Department of Public Works (DPW) major projects manager David Tapia. “We will go through likely a year-long process with [WisDOT] to get a final scope together before moving into the actual design of the roadway.”

“That is our transit-oriented development corridor long before we started talking about the phrase ‘transit-oriented development’ in the planning world. One of the reasons parking is a challenge over there… is because all of those buildings were built with the assumption that there would be robust, frequent bus service and other types of service on that corridor,” said Muhs. “My personal perspective is that’s great, let’s work with that and try to build a corridor that better works with that development pattern.”

But actual construction is still a long way off. The DPW representatives said the state slated construction to occur in 2031, which triggered Brostoff and Ald. Robert Bauman, who also represents a portion of Prospect Avenue, to say they thought it was 2028.

“Their program changes constantly,” said Tapia of the state’s scheduling. He said the city would need to reschedule one of its other projects to move the effort forward faster.

One thing could expedite it: if the city lands a federal streetcar extension grant. Muhs said the city would time the street reconstruction with that work, if the city is successful. Nearly a decade ago, the city completed an environmental review and preliminary engineering work to extend the streetcar from E. Ogden Avenue north to E. Royal Place using both Prospect and Farwell avenues.

The design work technically covers the corridor from E. Wells St. to N. Lake Drive, a 1.8-mile stretch. In addition to the one-way streets, the project also includes four blocks of E. Bradford Avenue that connect the streets with N. Lake Drive.

The budgeted design cost is $3.96 million, and the city must fund $927,500 of the work. The total estimated project cost, including construction, is $39.8 million. The city’s expected share of the construction costs is $3.2 million.

Related Legislation: File 230396