Intersection
The Port of Milwaukee Interchange Is an Overbuilt Mess
Simplified traffic connections could yield new land while better connecting to city.
Get a daily rundown of the top stories on Urban Milwaukee
Simplified traffic connections could yield new land while better connecting to city. Back to the full article.
Photos - Page 2
Categories: Intersection
Thanks for this wonderful article explaining how sensible reparation of the gross mistakes of traffic planners can make more property available for industry and ecology.
I can’t remember if the article about the ridiculous “interchange” at I-94 and National Ave. was here on Urban Milwaukee or elsewhere, but there’s another spot screaming for a major diet.
Milwaukee’s’ freeways (as was the case in every other city) displaced tens of thousands of families and businesses with disregard for, life, livelihood, community, or any for of traffic besides automobiles. I get the value of highways and the Interstate system, but traffic planners went way overboard in cities, and still do.
It’s high time the mistakes of the past be repaired for those of us here today and for future citizens.
I drive on this cluster of circles often. Direct access to/from 794 to/from the viaduct is a no-brainer.
We absolutely need the bike infrastructure, but let me point out that the rendering of just paint on pavement with plastic bollards is total trash and should never be how we build that infrastructure moving forward. *Protected* infrastructure for bikes and scooters, like how there is on Wells, Walnut, etc is how all bike infrastructure should be built from now on. When I’m driving my car and passing a bicycle with nothing separating us but paint, there’s a level of anxiety I would not have if we were separated by protected infrastructure like cars are from pedestrians.
Otherwise I absolutely love this idea. We need to reduce the footprint. That’s a lot of land value that is sitting completely empty.
The amount of high value land that Milwaukee has dedicated to massively overbuilt car infrastructure that generates $0 of property tax is insane.
Well WOW. Thanks for this fantastic in-depth reporting.
Excellent exercise and love it! One question, how do trucks from the Port get to NB 794? All I see for that is a very tight u-turn along LMD.
Cheapest solution: Just continue E Lincoln Ave at grade eastward to Carferry Dr. There’s rarely a train on those tracks and it would pretty much line up with the existing ramps. No big cost to do that compared to what is proposed here.
@CraigR – that was my thought as well, just remove the Lincoln viaduct and make the track crossing at-grade. Combine the ramp re-configuration with removal of the viaduct would open up land and reduce future roadway costs.
I would imagine the Marines could be tempted to move out of their rapidly aging legacy building to, for example, a more modern facility co-located in the Northside Army Reserve/Guard properties. Land swap with more fine industrial square footage.
“The resultant parkway and RR tracks acts as a wall between these two halves of the neighborhood.” I’d like to see built an additional access point across (or under) the Lake Parkway/Union Pacific RR tracks with placement say at Conway or across the street from the Beula Britten community center. I always felt the present configuration was a mistake especially since the community center was built.
The northern end of 794 is / should be greatly simplified with the coming 794 removal.
A tight diamond interchange is absolutely overkill for 794 here.
Get rid of the ramps and make it an at-grade intersection. Even a roundabout would be nice. Would be cheaper than building these new ramps, and would even open up money for further realigning 794 to maximize land for development.