MILWAUKEE—- Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson is recommending the elevated portion of Interstate 794 between downtown and the Historic Third Ward remain in place. This comes after months of reviewing traffic studies and consulting with city departments and community stakeholders.
The recommendation centers on the stretch of I-794 between the Marquette Interchange and the Hoan Bridge. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is studying the aging corridor and weighing several options, including removing the elevated freeway and replacing it with a street-level boulevard, rebuilding the freeway in its current footprint, or improving and modernizing the existing elevated roadway.
Johnson announced his recommendation Wednesday before formally submitting it to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, which is leading the environmental review and will ultimately determine the project’s preferred alternative.
The mayor said he previously considered supporting the removal of the elevated freeway but changed his position after reviewing detailed analyses.
“Traffic studies show a significant potential for gridlock, particularly in the summer season, if the traffic on 794 is brought down to street level,” Johnson said. “If 794 traffic is in the mix, lift bridges could cause gridlock throughout the summer. You add on the activity that we see during the festival season and the area east of the river could be completely impassable.”
Johnson said removing the freeway could also increase traffic through neighborhoods north and south of downtown, create congestion during Milwaukee’s busy summer festival season and affect freight movement to and from Port Milwaukee, which he says generates roughly 1,000 truck trips each day.
While Johnson acknowledged that removing the freeway could open valuable land for redevelopment and better connect downtown with the lakefront and Historic Third Ward, he said Milwaukee already has dozens of acres of developable property nearby and believes the transportation impacts outweigh the potential benefits.
“I would like to see the developable land,” Johnson said. “But we’ve had decades of established traffic patterns, and that has limited our ability to make dramatic changes here. We’ve already got a lot of land in the vicinity that are ready for new construction, dozens and dozens of acres that are ready for redevelopment. Ultimately, the future of 794, is going to be determined at the state level.”
Johnson also rejected comparisons between Interstate 794 and the former Park East Freeway, saying the two corridors carry vastly different traffic volumes. He said while the Park East removal worked because relatively few vehicles used the freeway, Interstate 794 serves as a key route for commuters, visitors and freight traffic entering downtown.
The mayor’s recommendation is advisory. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation, in coordination with the Federal Highway Administration, will continue its environmental review before selecting a preferred alternative. The project remains several years away from construction, with a final decision expected after the environmental review process is completed.
