Little Menomonee River Parkway No Longer for Cars

Little Menomonee River Parkway converted to trail. Photo taken by Graham Kilmer.

Milwaukee County Parks has finished one of the county’s first major road-to-trail projects.

The department recently completed a project on the northwest side, redeveloping a 0.8-mile segment of the Menomonee River Parkway into a mixed-use trail between W. Leon Terrace and W. Appleton Avenue.

The new trail provides “safer, off-street connection” to the county’s Oak Leaf Trail network, “transforming an underused section of parkway to dedicated trail for walking, biking and rolling,” Milwaukee County Parks Director Guy Smith said during a ribbon cutting Tuesday, Oct. 28.

Parks secured funding for the project in 2022. It’s among the first road-to-trail projects the department has successfully pursued. Parks is responsible for for more than 60 miles of parkway. Converting a road to a trail saves the department long-term maintenance costs, reduces the amount of paved service in the county and creates new recreation infrastructure.

“What was once a space for vehicles is now a space for people,” Smith said.

In an effort to save money and improve recreational opportunities in the system, the department has made it a matter of policy to reduce paved surfaces and convert roads to trails wherever possible. The Little Menomonee River Parkway provided a redundant right of way, according to parks. Any area accessible by the parkway is also accessible by the other roads.

The trail will not need to be replaced for at least 25 years. During that time it will reduce the maintenance costs of the parkway by an estimated 50% or $12,000, according to Parks.

By cutting off vehicle access to the area, the trail should prevent some of the public nuisance problems that previously plagued the parkway, according to Sup. Deanna Alexander, who represents the area on the county board.

“We used to have space here where we might find abandoned cars or trash dumps,” Alexander said. “Now I think that the parks department and Milwaukee County and our partners and contractors have shown we are listening, we do care about safe neighborhoods, we care about maintaining the properties that we have.”