Wisconsin notes

[SEWIGuy]

We are talking about a mile or so of freeway. I personally like being able to use 794 as an alternate to 43/94. But the need for 794 as an interstate freeway really is not very pressing. If 794 was to be done as a parkway with 45 zone, it would still function just fine and still allow better access for pedestrians and cyclists to the 3rd Ward.

Correct.

[SEWIGuy]

It's pretty safe to say that I-794 is going to be rebuilt. The FHWA is now taking the position that removing lanes and road diets are bad projects. I doubt they'd approve removing I-794.

The 6th Street project was just scrapped by the feds which I don't mind because the project would have made that road worse by squeezing traffic into a single lane.

All evidence to the contrary I guess.

It should be removed.

Removal makes no sense. It would waste the Hoan Bridge and clog traffic Downtown. It would also be safer for pedestrians/bikes because they wouldn't have to cross a busy street at grade. I-794 makes it easy to connect with the east side of Downtown and The Lakefront. Ease of access is part of why that area is thriving. Getting rid of I-794 would ruin that.

Hold on. You think the east side of downtown and the lakefront is thriving BECAUSE of a freeway that's just over a mile long? And that somehow a boulevard of some sort would stunt that? That's silly. No one is would avoid downtown because of the freeway removal.

This is the same nonsense that was said when they removed the Lake Park Freeway 20 years ago. "No one is going to go downtown anymore from the north side if you remove that freeway." That turned out to be a terrible prediction. People use McKinley to get downtown all the time now. And you know why? People like cities that are easily walkable and accessible. They will put up with slower speeds and few lights if it ends up like that. And guess what? They built the new arena right there and the area is booming. This is a great example of how a "road diet" worked.

Removal of the freeway would more easily connect the thriving Third Ward neighborhood WITH downtown and the Lakefront. It would further open more space for continued development. And it would not prevent people from going downtown and accessing the lake.

The Park East was a spur that was a dead end. I-794 is a thru route that's a big difference. 794 has been a huge benefit to The Lakefront, Bayview, and the South Shore communities. It makes no sense to ruin a convenient and easy highway between Downtown and those communities.

Uh you wouldn't be. They wouldn't be tearing the bridge down. Access will still be quick and easy from downtown.

[peterj920]

I see there's a public information meeting for US 51/Stoughton Rd tonight. I see the exhibits and it appears the best alternative shown is converting the Broadway/Pfaum Rd/Buckeye Rd intersections into jug handles. It appears all options involve expansion to 6 lanes.

[The Ghostbuster]

I could live with those three intersections becoming jug-handles, as long as they no longer intersect US 51 at-grade. I imagine Stoughton Rd. would be reconstructed so the roadway would pass under Buckeye and Pflaum, like what they had planned to do at the US 51/US 151 intersection (before they decided to maintain the existing signaled intersection (which I still believe is a mistake congestion-wise): https://wisconsindot.gov/Documents/projects/by-region/sw/us51-corridor/tdsept23.pdf; https://wisconsindot.gov/Documents/projects/by-region/sw/us51-corridor/0424jughandle.pdf. The corridor definitely needs to be six lanes, and I imagine the northbound Cottage Grove Rd. bridge and ramps will be reconstructed similar to the southbound bridge and ramps.

[peterj920]

I could live with those three intersections becoming jug-handles, as long as they no longer intersect US 51 at-grade. I imagine Stoughton Rd. would be reconstructed so the roadway would pass under Buckeye and Pflaum, like what they had planned to do at the US 51/US 151 intersection (before they decided to maintain the existing signaled intersection (which I still believe is a mistake congestion-wise): https://wisconsindot.gov/Documents/projects/by-region/sw/us51-corridor/tdsept23.pdf; https://wisconsindot.gov/Documents/projects/by-region/sw/us51-corridor/0424jughandle.pdf. The corridor definitely needs to be six lanes, and I imagine the northbound Cottage Grove Rd. bridge and ramps will be reconstructed similar to the southbound bridge and ramps.

Yes the at grade intersections would be replaced with overpasses. Some of the alternatives convert the Cottage Grove and Milwaukee Rd interchanges into jug handles too which makes no sense. Here's a link to the best plan in my opinion.

https://wisconsindot.gov/Documents/projects/by-region/sw/us51-corridor/45mph1124.pdf

[Great Lakes Roads]

https://www.wisn.com/article/i-43-north-south-freeway-project-completed-14-mile-stretch-open/65417663

The 14-mile I-43 North-South Freeway project is now complete!

[The Ghostbuster]

Excellent! Now if they could come up with a plan to reconstruct the Interstate 43/94 duplex, and a plan to reconstruct the Interstate 41/43/894 triplex west of S. 35th St. (preferably also widening both corridors to 8 lanes).

[FightingIrish]

Excellent! Now if they could come up with a plan to reconstruct the Interstate 43/94 duplex, and a plan to reconstruct the Interstate 41/43/894 triplex west of S. 35th St. (preferably also widening both corridors to 8 lanes).

They just redid I-894 between 35th and the Hale Interchange. New pavement, new barriers and shoulders, still six lanes. 

And, as of this past Thursday, while I-43 in the north suburbs done, a lane was closed in each direction between Hampton and Bender for barrier replacement and paving.

[SEWIGuy]

I-94 East/West is a far bigger problem than those two. It will be a long time before those have an increased capacity IMO.

[The Ghostbuster]

I believe the 894 project is a pavement resurfacing/shoulder reconstruction project with replacement of the STH 36/W. Loomis Rd. overpass, not a full reconstruction project: https://projects.511wi.gov/894/full-project-overview/. A full reconstruction of the corridor with interchange reconstruction and possible capacity expansion is likely still down the road. The next time there is construction on the corridor, it will likely be a full reconstruction project.

[Plutonic Panda]

We are talking about a mile or so of freeway. I personally like being able to use 794 as an alternate to 43/94. But the need for 794 as an interstate freeway really is not very pressing. If 794 was to be done as a parkway with 45 zone, it would still function just fine and still allow better access for pedestrians and cyclists to the 3rd Ward.

Correct.

And yet the freeway wasn't fully utilized. You could build a tunnel underneath the airport to connect it to the other interstate, and it could be used as a redundant bypass which it probably would be used much more so if that is constructed, which should obviously won't be.

[SEWIGuy]

We are talking about a mile or so of freeway. I personally like being able to use 794 as an alternate to 43/94. But the need for 794 as an interstate freeway really is not very pressing. If 794 was to be done as a parkway with 45 zone, it would still function just fine and still allow better access for pedestrians and cyclists to the 3rd Ward.

Correct.

And yet the freeway wasn't fully utilized. You could build a tunnel underneath the airport to connect it to the other interstate, and it could be used as a redundant bypass which it probably would be used much more so if that is constructed, which should obviously won't be.

We have talked about this before. That just a terrible idea on a number of levels. The I-794 / WI-794 corridor does just fine.

[Plutonic Panda]

We are talking about a mile or so of freeway. I personally like being able to use 794 as an alternate to 43/94. But the need for 794 as an interstate freeway really is not very pressing. If 794 was to be done as a parkway with 45 zone, it would still function just fine and still allow better access for pedestrians and cyclists to the 3rd Ward.

Correct.

And yet the freeway wasn't fully utilized. You could build a tunnel underneath the airport to connect it to the other interstate, and it could be used as a redundant bypass which it probably would be used much more so if that is constructed, which should obviously won't be.

We have talked about this before. That just a terrible idea on a number of levels. The I-794 / WI-794 corridor does just fine.

OK, maybe you're right, but has there ever even been a study done on it?

[peterj920]

County PP in Southern Brown County was just reconstructed and it now looks like a Michigan Highway with No Passing Zone, Do Not Pass and Pass With Care signs. I haven't seen any other road set up this way in Wisconsin and Brown County doesn't even have No Passing Zone signs on any of its other roads. The signs have WISDOT tags on them and grant money was used to pay for the majority of the project.

I'm curious to see if those signs are coming to more projects in the state.

[Big John]

^^ Are they looking at old standards as that practice was eliminated in Wisconsin in the early 1980s.

[SEWIGuy]

We are talking about a mile or so of freeway. I personally like being able to use 794 as an alternate to 43/94. But the need for 794 as an interstate freeway really is not very pressing. If 794 was to be done as a parkway with 45 zone, it would still function just fine and still allow better access for pedestrians and cyclists to the 3rd Ward.

Correct.

And yet the freeway wasn't fully utilized. You could build a tunnel underneath the airport to connect it to the other interstate, and it could be used as a redundant bypass which it probably would be used much more so if that is constructed, which should obviously won't be.

We have talked about this before. That just a terrible idea on a number of levels. The I-794 / WI-794 corridor does just fine.

OK, maybe you're right, but has there ever even been a study done on it?

No. Because its obviously a terrible idea. There were original plans to create a "Lake Freeway" from the end of I-794, and WI-794 is an altered version of that original idea, but extending that further south in freeway form would have also been bad.

[The Ghostbuster]

There, of course, has been a proposal to extend the STH 794/Lake Parkway to STH 100/E. Ryan Rd. However, any extension is quite a ways off since the extension was first proposed in 2012. I would support it 100%, since it would go by the house where my paternal grandparents once lived.

[SEWIGuy]

There, of course, has been a proposal to extend the STH 794/Lake Parkway to STH 100/E. Ryan Rd. However, any extension is quite a ways off since the extension was first proposed in 2012. I would support it 100%, since it would go by the house where my paternal grandparents once lived.

Right but they are likely not going to build anything over a new ROW, and it most certainly won't be a freeway. If anything, they'll just run the WI-794 designation down Pennsylvania Avenue.

WIDOT should be saving their $$$ for capacity build up on existing Milwaukee freeways.

[hobsini2]

There, of course, has been a proposal to extend the STH 794/Lake Parkway to STH 100/E. Ryan Rd. However, any extension is quite a ways off since the extension was first proposed in 2012. I would support it 100%, since it would go by the house where my paternal grandparents once lived.

Right but they are likely not going to build anything over a new ROW, and it most certainly won't be a freeway. If anything, they'll just run the WI-794 designation down Pennsylvania Avenue.

WIDOT should be saving their $$$ for capacity build up on existing Milwaukee freeways.

And Pennsylvania Ave runs just fine currently. Maybe 20 years down the line I could see it being more of a boulevard or parkway to Ryan Rd but not now.