Buses Replace Streetcars While Repair Work Continues

The damaged water main (bottom left) sits while contractors and city workers repair the intersection of N. Broadway and E. Wisconsin Avenue. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Buses have replaced streetcars in Milwaukee, a temporary measure designed to mitigate a system shutdown that started Wednesday, Aug. 30 when a water main rupture caused a cascading series of issues at a key downtown intersection.

The Milwaukee Water Works (MWW) is targeting Friday to fully reopen the intersection of N. Broadway and E. Wisconsin Avenue. That will come after We Energies has fully rebuilt its utility vault, which received “substantial damage” when the 12-inch water main broke, and MWW contractor Mid-City Corporation has replaced the water main and filled the void that formed.

The intersection has been closed since Wednesday evening, detouring all traffic including the Connect 1 bus rapid transit line. The route is a key east-west route through Downtown and an important southbound route to Interstate 794.

Power and water service has been restored to all nearby buildings, though the 20-story Two Fifty building remained closed Tuesday morning.

The exact timing of when streetcar vehicles might return to operating through the intersection is not available. The system will need to receive state safety approval according to a city spokesperson.

Two Milwaukee County Transit System buses are operating on the route, roughly replicating the frequency of service the streetcar vehicles would have provided. The Hop while in bus form is still free to ride. But the buses are unable to fully utilize all of the stations because the streetcars have doors on both sides, while MCTS buses only have doors on the non-driver side.

According to information released Friday, no damage is known to have occurred to the streetcar track, nor the station located just south of the intersection. But a portion of the water main repair work needs to occur below the track itself because of where the washout occurred.

The offending water main, the second to break at the intersection in two years, could be spotted just west of the intersection Tuesday morning while a team of contractors and city workers worked to replace it.

The relaid water main will not be placed in exactly the same place as before, according to a MWW spokesperson. A new 60-foot pipe segment will be routed away from the electrical infrastructure in the street in an attempt to minimize future disruptions from underground issues.

The main that broke was originally installed in 1872, twelve years earlier than the 2021 break.

The November 2021 break resulted in the partial closure of the intersection and substantial damage to equipment in the basement of the Railway Exchange Building, 229 E. Wisconsin Ave, and flooding of the steam tunnel system. The latest  break caused only minor flooding in the office building’s basement.

We Energies reported that its steam tunnel system does not appear to have been damaged by the latest break. Prior water penetrations, including the 2021 break, have caused steam to burst out of the system across the network. A 2020 penetration did millions in damage to We Energies’ own headquarters.

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Second water main leak in two years at Wisconsin and Broadway pic.twitter.com/qJQfixQVoM

— Jeramey Jannene (@compujeramey) August 30, 2023

UPDATE: An earlier version of this article referred to the main as an 1884 main. MWW officials confirm that was the original expectation, but further investigation showed it to be an 1872 main.