Trail Extension Will Link Downtown With Planned 20th Street Trail

Beerline Trail in 2015. Photo by Jack Fennimore.

A new rails-to-trails extension through Milwaukee and Glendale will fill a critical missing link between the Beerline Trail and the planned 20th Street Trail, substantially expanding the utility of the off-street, paved trails in Milwaukee County.

With federal funding, the Beerline Trail is being extended 1.65 miles from its northern terminus near W. Capitol Drive and N. 3rd Street northwest to N. 20th and W. Cornell streets. The planned 20th Street Trail would add an additional 1.65 miles.

Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) then-Secretary Craig Thompson confirmed the project was in the works in early 2021, when he said the reconstruction of Interstate 43 would include a dedicated corridor under the elevated freeway for the future trail. It would pass under the freeway near The Home Depot store at 4155 N. Port Washington Ave.

“It’s a really nice trail connection with some on-street connections as well,” said Department of Public Works (DPW) multi-modal manager Michael Amsden to the Public Works Committee on Dec. 4.

Design work is slated to begin next year. Construction would “ideally” occur in 2027 said Amsden.

Milwaukee County secured a $226,000 million federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) grant earlier this year, but is providing the funding to the City of Milwaukee to lead the design. The local partners, Milwaukee and the City of Glendale, must provide a 20% match. A small sliver of the trail, near Interstate 43, passes through Glendale. A future CMAQ award of $1.22 million would fund construction. “We will do the design, get reimbursed for the small portion in Glendale and then the County will lead construction and they will get reimbursed for a small portion,” said Amsden. The city will need to initially fund $56,000 for design work. The committee unanimously endorsed the proposal, which is now pending before the Common Council. Milwaukee County first applied for the grant in 2021.

The trail extension will connect with the 20th Street Trail project, which is slated to receive a 10-foot-wide paved trail in a former interurban corridor between W. Oliver Street and W. Villard Avenue. The grassy corridor is owned by We Energies and parallels N. 20th Street. A westward extension of the Beerline Trail would also be built as part of that project, extending the Beerline Trail west to N. 24th Street. The remaining portion of the rail line to the west is still active. The north-south trail would connect William Gore Park near Rufus King High School with Meaux Park, just west of Lincoln Park. Milwaukee County is working on a separate east-west road-to-trail project on the Lincoln Creek Parkway, just west of the 20th Street Trail’s northern terminus. The City of Milwaukee also recently won a grant to overhaul the portion of W. Villard Avenue to the west into a safer street. Earlier this year, the city pursued supplemental funding to deal with cost escalations of the 20th Street Trail.

The two new trail segments would link the Beerline, Riverwest and Harambee neighborhoods with the Williamsburg, Grover Heights, Rufus King, Lincoln Park neighborhoods. They will also provide a new off-street route into Downtown, similar to the Oak Leaf Trail through the East Side.

The existing 3.7-mile Beerline Trail, a former Milwaukee Road rail line named for its heavy usage by Schlitz and Pabst, runs southeast from W. Capitol Drive to Gordon Park before following the Milwaukee River southwest to W. Pleasant Street and N. Commerce Street. Its southern terminus is an on-street intersection with a newly constructed protected bike lane. The segment between E. Locust Street and E. Keefe Avenue is frequently interrupted by low-usage streets, but much of the corridor is an uninterrupted off-street trail.

A fundraising effort is currently underway to develop “B-Line Park” on the newest trail segment, located between E. Keefe Avenue and W. Capitol Drive. The uninterrupted corridor, which runs behind several industrial properties, would receive a collection of amenities to make it more of a gathering space. A community building, anchored by Kumba Juice and Coffee, opened in February at 274 E. Keefe Ave.

A future northern extension of the 20th Street Trail, requiring a new Milwaukee River bridge, could connect the trail with the Oak Leaf Trail’s Zip Line near N. Sidney Place. That trail, through a series of names, continues through Ozaukee County to Sheboygan. The interconnected network, including a segment west to the planned 30th Street Industrial Corridor project, is contemplated in the 700-mile Route of the Badger plan.

A separate series of projects will build a connected series of protected bike lanes from the intersection of N. Sherman Boulevard and W. Capitol Drive into Downtown. A $25 million federal grant, announced in September, to rebuild a portion of W. Center Street and a separate grant to add protected lines into Riverwest will create a protected bike lane link between Beerline Trail and N. Sherman Boulevard.

20th Street Trail Corridor and Map

Existing Beerline Trail and B-Line Park Photos and Renderings

Beerline Trail Extension Map

A map of the proposed extension by the City of Milwaukee.

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