People who travel I-43 around Capitol Drive and Hampton Avenue on Milwaukee’s north side will need to prepare for a long-term rehabilitation project that begins this week.
The project will include:
- Removing the 1,500-foot mainline bridge over an abandoned railroad yard and replacing it with an embankment section roadway.
- Rehabilitating or replacing various mainline and entrance/exit ramp bridges.
- Implementing auxiliary lanes between Capitol Drive and Hampton Avenue.
- Consolidating Hampton Avenue traffic to an improved freeway exit ramp just south of Hampton Avenue.
- Replacing an existing noise wall on the west side of I-43 south of the Milwaukee River, and constructing two new noise walls north of Capitol Drive on both sides of I-43.
- Installing a new connection to the Beerline Trail multi-use trail.
With this stretch of the interstate averaging just under 129-thousand vehicles a day, the DOT has released a schedule of what to expect when it comes to traffic impact:
- First, the I-43 northbound exit ramp to westbound Hampton Avenue will close and be permanently removed.
- By the end of summer, the I-43 southbound entrance ramp from Hampton Avenue will close long-term. There will also be alternating ramp closures near Capitol Drive.
- By the fall, I-43 northbound, from just south of Glendale Avenue to Bender Road, will have a two-lane configuration until late in the year. I-43 southbound will remain in its three-lane configuration.
Overall, the entire project is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.
More details on the project can be found here.
A reminder that work north of the Zoo Interchange will see lane reductions begin this week. That will include the use of a zipper merge to try to keep traffic flowing as fast as is safely possible.