Construction Starting On $1.7 Billion Interstate 94 Widening
Closures begin Nov. 3 with construction running through 2033.
Interstate 94 freeway at N. 16th St. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
Years of construction delays are about to begin for thousands of Milwaukee motorists.
Governor Tony Evers announced Wednesday that construction on the Interstate 94 widening project is scheduled to start on Oct. 27. Major impacts will occur beginning Nov. 3.
Work on the $1.74 billion project will begin on the “West Leg Segment,” which stretches from Zablocki Drive, just west of American Family Field, to N. 70th Street.
The larger 3.5-mile project calls for rebuilding the aging freeway between N. 16th and N. 70th streets and a complete replacement of the Stadium Interchange. The six-lane roadway will be expanded to eight lanes as part of the project.
Construction is expected to last through 2033.
Wednesday’s Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) announcement says that the initial work area is a $121 million project with Zignego Company serving as the prime contractor. In addition to widening the roadway, the West Leg Segment will include replacing the Hawley Interchange with a “half interchange,” eliminating ramps to and from the east, and reconstructing the 68th/70th Street Interchange.
Several notable closures are expected to begin the week of Nov. 3. Planned “long-term” closures include one lane in each direction in the segment, the Hawley Road Interchange, the southbound Wisconsin Highway 175 (WIS 175) ramp to westbound I-94 and the 68th Street ramp to eastbound I-94. The ramp from southbound WIS 175 to Frederick Miller Way, a primary ballpark offramp, will also close for 30 days.
The closures won’t affect baseball fans this season. If the Milwaukee Brewers make the 2025 World Series, the last possible game would be Nov. 1.
But work on the western leg is scheduled to continue through 2028.
Work on the eastern segment isn’t scheduled until 2028, though an “Early East Leg” project near 27th Street is planned for this year. The Stadium Interchange will be the last component to be rebuilt, with construction starting in 2029.
Construction work has already been occurring on W. National Avenue west of Miller Park Way. The street is expected to see additional traffic during the project.
The corridor carries 158,000 to 178,000 vehicles daily. Built in the early 1960s, it includes 43 bridges.
More information on construction timing is available on WisDOT’s I-94 East-West project website.
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More about the I-94 East-West Expansion
- Construction Starting On $1.7 Billion Interstate 94 Widening - Jeramey Jannene - Oct 15th, 2025
- Governor Evers approves first segment of I-94 East-West construction to begin in Milwaukee County - Wisconsin Department of Transportation - Oct 15th, 2025
- Transportation: Fix At Six Coalition Sues State, Federal Government Over I-94 Expansion - Graham Kilmer - Aug 20th, 2024
- WisDOT to host I-94 East-West Freeway Project public meetings - Wisconsin Department of Transportation - Jun 12th, 2024
- Open Houses Announced For I-94 Widening - Jeramey Jannene - Jun 6th, 2024
- ‘Fix at Six’ Group Wants I-94 Expansion Delayed For Civil Rights Report - Jeramey Jannene - Mar 20th, 2024
- Coalition Admonishes I-94 expansion Record of Decision - Sierra Club - Mar 20th, 2024
- Feds Approve Interstate 94 Expansion - Jeramey Jannene - Mar 8th, 2024
- Advocates condemn approval of I-94 expansion - Sierra Club - Mar 8th, 2024
- I-94 East-West Project Receives Federal Approval - Wisconsin Department of Transportation - Mar 8th, 2024
Read more about I-94 East-West Expansion here
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Every time I get stuck in that afternoon merge at 68th street and morning merge at the stadium I think of Scott Walker, who canceled this project years ago.
The $1.7 billion could be used to expand our mass transit. We need to look into the future and not keep repeating mistakes of the past. There essentially is no transit program in Milwaukee, we have to use our cars. Once we leave these billion dollar highways we then drive on crumbling infrastructure, and with unsafe traffic. More lanes on I-94 will not solve the congestion problem. The number of cars will increase to fill the expanded pavement.
Waste of time and money. We need to be expanding mass transit and at the very least bring back the freeway flyers.
Here is a radical idea. If you don’t think freeways are a good thing….shut that stretch down for 30 days and divert all traffic to the surface streets. That would change peoples minds about the need for them (or for improvements that makes it flow better).
Or how about this. Eliminate parking on many of the streets downtown, or raise the rates for parking to such a degree that you discourage people from driving downtown and in the congested areas. When I worked downtown, I did utilize the freeway flyers, because parking was approaching $100 or more a month, and the flyers (when we had them) were much more practical (cheaper) for me.
Then again, there is that dreaded “congestion pricing” for driving into a city. I know it would be hard to set up compared to how NYC can charge the “toll,” but hey…if you want to be serious about this…some radical thinking needs to be applied.
A great book: City Limits: Infrastructure, Inequality, and the Future of America’s Highways by Megan Kimble. In this book, Megan Kimble tells the story of two worlds: the people working to plan and build highways and a separate world of people displaced by and fighting this construction. She describes this multi-decade and multi-faceted conflict and the changing generations involved. Ultimately, Kimble uncovers an important conclusion about this struggle and a way forward that could help reclaim the future of cities in the American landscape. https://johndecember.com/places/people/kimble2024.html
I haven’t read Kimble’s City Limits—the book mentioned by one of Milwaukee’s unheralded deep thinkers—John December—but I’ve read a summary.
We shouldn’t be spending almost two billion $ on a highway project. More road-construction mayhem? Looks like it’s too late to halt this project. Really sad.
However, let’s NOW join the fight to replace the elevated I-794 freeway with a street-level boulevard. It WILL be a fight. The “boulevard option” is clearly the best for Milwaukee and its future. I believe Kimble would strongly support this option. She’s from Austin with dreadful traffic issues. Thanks, John December, for calling attention to her work.