Upcoming Manitowoc Hwy Renumbering and 2 way street conversion

[peterj920]

On August 15, Manitowoc will eliminate the one way pairs on US 10 along 10/11th & 8th streets. They will be converted from one way to two way traffic. Along with that there will be major renumbering that takes place:

US 151 will end at I-43

US 10 will be routed along Waldo Blvd for the entire length, turn southwest on Maritime Dr, cross the 8th St bridge, and turn on Quay St to the Carferry docks.

Wis 42 will be rerouted onto Washington St/Current US 151 to 10th St, turn north on 10th St, then east on Maritime Dr where it will head north with a rerouted US 10 to its existing 4 lane route along Lake Michigan to Two Rivers.

Business 42 will be eliminated.

The city states that both bridges need to be WISDOT highways in order to keep bridge maintenance funding and the new plan will remove close to 2 miles of highways from residential streets. Thoughts?

Source: https://www.manitowoc.org/DocumentCenter/View/31217/Two-Way-Streets-Downtown-Manitowoc-7121-REV?bidId&fbclid=IwAR1EshlHuJjPL7W-FvuFh7WZ4yXSd36Ok9sn6Cajg07APjZnEnKbeX8401E&fs=e&s=cl

[Molandfreak]

Wait, so what's the point of removing 151 and moving 42 if nothing else is significantly changing beyond removing a one-way pair?

[oscar]

Wait, so what's the point of removing 151 and moving 42 if nothing else is significantly changing beyond removing a one-way pair?

Has Wisconsin DOT even agreed to those things, and other needed approvals have been obtained (such as perhaps from AASHTO, w/r/t the U.S. route truncations or reroutes)? That's unclear from the only source you cite, which is mainly an advocacy piece for the elimination of a one-way street pair.

[Duke87]

Wait, so what's the point of removing 151 and moving 42 if nothing else is significantly changing beyond removing a one-way pair?

Well, 42 is only moving off the part of 8th and 10th/11th that will no longer be state-maintained. It's not changing south/west of downtown. It's currently concurrent with 151, 151's circumcision presumably is to eliminate most of what is otherwise an unnecessary concurrency.

The stupid thing in this is US 10's new routing. It would make more sense to keep it on I-43 for another exit and send it east along current US 151 towards the docks rather than having the weird circuitous thing on Maritime Drive. Indeed, ask google for directions to the ferry dock from I-43 north of town and even now it will send you down to exit 149 rather than having you follow US 10.

[peterj920]

Wait, so what's the point of removing 151 and moving 42 if nothing else is significantly changing beyond removing a one-way pair?

Has Wisconsin DOT even agreed to those things, and other needed approvals have been obtained (such as perhaps from AASHTO, w/r/t the U.S. route truncations or reroutes)? That's unclear from the only source you cite, which is mainly an advocacy piece for the elimination of a one-way street pair.

Read Page 9. It says the State of Wisconsin and City of Manitowoc came to an agreement. The state wins by eliminating about 1.5 miles of highway through the city. You can look at the City of Manitowoc website and it warns of the upcoming switch. It says sign changes will happen through October and the rerouted highways will probably be last.

[Molandfreak]

Wait, so what's the point of removing 151 and moving 42 if nothing else is significantly changing beyond removing a one-way pair?

Well, 42 is only moving off the part of 8th and 10th/11th that will no longer be state-maintained. It's not changing south/west of downtown. It's currently concurrent with 151, 151's circumcision presumably is to eliminate most of what is otherwise an unnecessary concurrency.

Not really. That's Business 42. Regular 42 follows I-43 and US 10 north of town.

The stupid thing in this is US 10's new routing. It would make more sense to keep it on I-43 for another exit and send it east along current US 151 towards the docks rather than having the weird circuitous thing on Maritime Drive. Indeed, ask google for directions to the ferry dock from I-43 north of town and even now it will send you down to exit 149 rather than having you follow US 10.

I completely agree. If anything, US 10 should follow 151's route, and the Maritime Drive route should just be an independent part of Business 42.

[NWI_Irish96]

So if I'm following all of this correctly, the road segments that weren't previously highways but will become highways are:

Maritime between Waldo and 8th

Quay from 8th to the ferry dock

The road segments that were previously highways but will no longer be are:

8th between Waldo and Maritime

8th between Quay and Madison

10th between Washington and Madison

Madison/Lakeview between 10th and the ferry dock

[SEWIGuy]

My thoughts:

**I am all for the elimination of one-way streets.  This will make downtown much more accessible.

**Maritime is a better routing for US-10 and WI-42 than 8th and 10th. Yeah the turn from Waldo to Maritime is sharp, but I believe they just redid that intersection to a traffic circle so it isn't that bad.

**The US-151 trucation I guess makes sense. My dream, which will obviously never come to pass, is that US-151 replace WI-42 all the way up to Door County. The WI-42 routing prior was dumb so this at least allows that to be fixed.

[Molandfreak]

I guess with some further reflection, I'm going to go ahead and retract the opinion that Business 42 should remain there. It might have made a bit more sense before WIS 57 was four-laned, but now that's the primary route to get to Door County unless you want a bit more scenery next to Lake Michigan on the drive.

[The Ghostbuster]

I hate one-way-to-two-way street conversions. I believe that once a street is converted to one-way, it should stay that way permanently. Converting one-ways back to two-way does nothing but increase congestion and decrease safety, for motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians alike.

[SEWIGuy]

I hate one-way-to-two-way street conversions. I believe that once a street is converted to one-way, it should stay that way permanently. Converting one-ways back to two-way does nothing but increase congestion and decrease safety, for motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians alike.

Not being snarky, but how do you know this?

I think the converting back to two-ways, while also moving the highways off of them, is going to be helpful.

[peterj920]

So if I'm following all of this correctly, the road segments that weren't previously highways but will become highways are:

Maritime between Waldo and 8th

Quay from 8th to the ferry dock

The road segments that were previously highways but will no longer be are:

8th between Waldo and Maritime

8th between Quay and Madison

10th between Washington and Madison

Madison/Lakeview between 10th and the ferry dock

10th/11th from Maritime to Waldo won't be a state highway either. Maritime between 10th and 8th will become Wis 42.

[triplemultiplex]

That's weird that WI 42 will go back to going thru the core of the city since it currently rides the interstate between US 151 and US 10.  Like it was on a 'bypass', but now is getting moved back to the 'business' routing.  I can't think of a precedent for that in WI (or anywhere else off the top of my head). 

The way US 10 currently sort of doubles back on itself to get the ferry dock is a legacy of when there was a big ol' rail yard between downtown and the ferry dock and no streets went thru.

But now they're replacing that doubling back situation with a new doubling back situation by sending 10 all the way east to Maritime, and then south.  Not a huge fan of that.  I get that makes for a better routing for WI 42, but it makes it completely awkward for 10.  Increased distance and twice as many turns.  I would have rather seen 8th St used.  It's not like the traffic is going to overwhelm 8th once it's two-way.

As for the one-way pair going away, I'm on board.  Manitowoc is too small of city to have long, one-way streets.  That only encourages people to speed thru the neighborhood creating a hazard for non-cars.

[Hobart]

I hate one-way-to-two-way street conversions. I believe that once a street is converted to one-way, it should stay that way permanently. Converting one-ways back to two-way does nothing but increase congestion and decrease safety, for motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians alike.

I heard the contrary from a few different articles when I was looking into Milwaukee's conversion of streets into two-way setups. I also noticed this while riding my bike around Milwaukee, especially up Prospect Avenue, a one way street carrying STH-32.

From what I can tell, people seem to speed a lot more, and be more inattentive as drivers, on one-way streets, probably because of less conflicts and less traffic. This makes them less safe for pedestrian traffic, because people are paying less attention to the roads and going faster.

Plus, this is probably the easiest way to reduce highway mileage.

[Alps]

Well I'll be there in a few weeks so I will see how the signing progress goes - intent is to be following 42 through town!

[paulthemapguy]

US 10 is going to have a Z-shaped detour through town, and that's stupid. Route it on either 10th or 8th, or send it south on I-43 for another exit so it can use Washington Street.

[SEWIGuy]

US 10 is going to have a Z-shaped detour through town, and that's stupid. Route it on either 10th or 8th, or send it south on I-43 for another exit so it can use Washington Street.

Sending further south to Washington Street is a more out of the way routing than the new one will be.

[hobsini2]

I don't get the truncating of US 151. If anything, I would have 151 stay on Washington and go up 8th Street to meet US 10.  But I like the idea of sending 151 onto 42 routing from Manitowoc  through the west side of Door County to Northport at the footsteps of the Washington Island Ferry.

[triplemultiplex]

I hate one-way-to-two-way street conversions. I believe that once a street is converted to one-way, it should stay that way permanently. Converting one-ways back to two-way does nothing but increase congestion and decrease safety, for motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians alike.

I heard the contrary from a few different articles when I was looking into Milwaukee's conversion of streets into two-way setups. I also noticed this while riding my bike around Milwaukee, especially up Prospect Avenue, a one way street carrying STH-32.

From what I can tell, people seem to speed a lot more, and be more inattentive as drivers, on one-way streets, probably because of less conflicts and less traffic. This makes them less safe for pedestrian traffic, because people are paying less attention to the roads and going faster.

It's the counter-intuitive phenomenon that by seemingly making a street less safe, it actually improves safety.  Because drivers feel compelled to slow down and thus have more reaction time to things like pedestrians, bikes, and other typical hazards.  It's psychological, man.

I used to work on that Prospect/Farwell one-way pair and yeah, people wanna fly down those streets. Compared to nearby two-way streets like Oakland or Brady, it's dramatic how much faster people drive; practically racing each other to the next red light.

[SEWIGuy]

I hate one-way-to-two-way street conversions. I believe that once a street is converted to one-way, it should stay that way permanently. Converting one-ways back to two-way does nothing but increase congestion and decrease safety, for motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians alike.

I heard the contrary from a few different articles when I was looking into Milwaukee's conversion of streets into two-way setups. I also noticed this while riding my bike around Milwaukee, especially up Prospect Avenue, a one way street carrying STH-32.

From what I can tell, people seem to speed a lot more, and be more inattentive as drivers, on one-way streets, probably because of less conflicts and less traffic. This makes them less safe for pedestrian traffic, because people are paying less attention to the roads and going faster.

It's the counter-intuitive phenomenon that by seemingly making a street less safe, it actually improves safety.  Because drivers feel compelled to slow down and thus have more reaction time to things like pedestrians, bikes, and other typical hazards.  It's psychological, man.

I used to work on that Prospect/Farwell one-way pair and yeah, people wanna fly down those streets. Compared to nearby two-way streets like Oakland or Brady, it's dramatic how much faster people drive; practically racing each other to the next red light.

Yes, I went to Marquette back when Wells Street was one way heading east, and the traffic was much more dangerous then than it is now as a two way street. (State Street was the one way west equivalent.)