City Wins Grant To Reconstruct Cherry Street Bridge

Milwaukee is moving towards reconstructing the Cherry Street Bridge over the Milwaukee River at the north edge of Downtown.

“Over the last 20 years we’ve put a lot of money into replacing our movable bridge infrastructure,” said Public Works Commissioner Jerrel Kruschke to members of the Finance & Personnel Committee Wednesday.

And now the city will be able to put a little less in. The state is poised to award the city approximately $13.5 million to fund the reconstruction of the Cherry Street Bridge.

“It’s one of the last movable bridges we have to replace,” said Kruschke.

Actual construction work would occur in 2024 or 2025 said the commissioner.

The city already set aside approximately $3 million for what is expected to be a $17 million project. The grant award requires a 20% local match.

Kruschke said the city was successful in securing the Cherry Street grant as part of a $27 million award from the state’s Local Bridge Improvement Assistance Program, which saw an increase in federal funding.

Approximately $2.5 million will fund design and rehabilitation work on the Water Street Bridge between the Historic Third Ward and Walker’s Point. The work is less substantial than planned for the Cherry Street Bridge. Additionally, approximately $11 million will fund design and rehabilitation work on the 35th Street Viaduct over the Menomonee Valley.

The last bridge rehabilitation project completed was the Michigan Street Lift Bridge in 2020.

Kruschke said that even after all 20 movable bridges are rehabilitated, the city will need to plan allocate $1 or $2 million per year for route maintenance.

The Cherry Street Bridge structure dates back to 1940, with a plaque on the bridge denoting that it was funded by the Public Works Administration (and recognizing Mayor Daniel Hoan and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt). It was last substantially rehabilitated in 1990. The bridge, approximately 200 feet in length, uses a bascule design that opens in the middle.

But there has been a bridge at the site since shortly after the city’s 1846 incorporation, with the first span constructed following the city’s bridge war.

The structure before the current bascule bridge was a swing bridge. The 1940 structure includes two Art Moderne-style bridge houses, one of which is still manned by a bridge operator. They were designed by prolific city staff architect Charles Malig.

While it once played a pivotal connection between East Town and the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company, today it sees approximately 3,000 vehicle crossings per day. Based on a Wisconsin Department of Transportation traffic count map, the Cherry Street Bridge has the fewest number of crossings of any of the downtown bridges.

It also opens substantially less than most other bridges. Because it is so far upriver it does not open as frequently and, as a result, the city does not break out its individual openings when reporting bridge openings. DPW reported it opened three times in 2017. Knapp Street to the south opened 12 times and Wisconsin Avenue 3,649 times that year.

The council will need to approve finalized grant agreements for each project. Kruschke provided the initial amount as part of a larger discussion about the Department of Public Works 2023 budget.

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