Noise barrier offer meets wall of resistance

Published: June 24, 2009
Tags: Bottsford Avenue, I-94 reconstruction, Milwaukee Transportation Partners LLC, noise barrier, Wisconsin Department of Transportation

Sean Ryan
sean.ryan@dailyreporter.com

Neighborhood opposition to a Mitchell Interchange noise barrier is falling on deaf ears as the local Milwaukee alderman insists the project is too important to pass up.

In surveys conducted by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and Alderman Terry Witkowski, the majority of residents living in and near the area where a 17-foot-tall wall would be built do not want the barrier. The wall would be erected on the north side of Interstate 894 from 16th Street, where the existing wall ends, to the Mitchell Interchange.

The new wall would create a barrier between homes on Bottsford Avenue, which runs roughly parallel to the north side of I-894. Bottsford Avenue Resident Timothy Satorius and two of his neighbors argued against the wall during Wednesday’s meeting of the Milwaukee Common Council Public Works Committee. They said they would rather see a highway than a wall and argued the barrier would decrease their property values.

“This is going to be going in my backyard,” said Bottsford Avenue resident Robert Paul. “I’m going to be looking at a prison wall for the next 20 years. You can put lipstick on a pig, but at the end of the day you still have cosmetics on a farm animal.”

Witkowski, who represents the area, said houses will lose value if there is no wall. He said he wants the wall extended because it will block noise from traffic.

Furthermore, Witkowski said, this is a one-shot deal. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is offering to build the walls when it reconstructs Interstate 94 from the Mitchell Interchange to the Illinois border. The agency, Witkowski said, will not make the same offer until I-94 needs to be rebuilt again.

“The big thing is this has got to be 50 years, and we’ve got to look past three people that showed up here today,” Witkowski said at Wednesday’s hearing.

Satorius suggested the city ask WisDOT to build a berm and plant trees on it instead of erecting a wall.

“I don’t know what you like to look at,” he told the committee. “I don’t like to look at a wall.”

WisDOT decided not to build berms in that area because those projects require more land and would force the state to buy portions of residents’ backyards, said Brian Swenson, project manager for Milwaukee Transportation Partners LLC, a Milwaukee-based team of HNTB Corp. and CH2M Hill Inc. working as an engineer for WisDOT on the I-94 reconstruction.

Witkowski said he is working with WisDOT to get trees or ivy planted near the wall. He said he is willing to go against the wishes of some residents because taking advantage of the state’s offer to build the wall is an opportunity that will last generations.

“All other stretches of the freeway that didn’t have them in the past have now requested them,” Witkowski said. “That means a lot to me.”

The Public Works Committee delayed a decision until next month. WisDOT, which is letting local governments decide if they want noise barriers built as part of the I-94 reconstruction, wants a decision by August, Swenson said.

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