Zenith Tech awarded $17.2M contract for new platform, pedestrian bridge at Milwaukee airport Amtrak station

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) has launched a federally funded construction project to build a new platform and pedestrian overpass at the rail station on the western edge of Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport (MKE). The airport station sits near the midpoint of the Amtrak Hiawatha Service connecting Milwaukee and Chicago, and building out the airport station will help provide infrastructure for more trains, according to the Federal Railroad Administration.

WisDOT wants to build an 800-foot-long concrete platform on the west side of two rail tracks, build elevator towers on the east and west sides of the tracks with an overhead pedestrian bridge, integrate an elevator tower on the east side of the tracks into the existing station building, resurface 0.6 miles of track and renew one third of the ties on the main tracks, according to the project overview.

Waukesha-based Zenith Tech Inc. is the primary contractor for the project and is contracted for $17.2 million, according to WisDOT records.

Expanding the Milwaukee Airport Rail Station, or MARS, to have two permanent passenger platforms is part of a strategy to build infrastructure for more Hiawatha trains and reduce conflicts with elongated freight trains, according to documents from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).

The station has only one permanent platform on the airport side of the track, so trains coming from Milwaukee and Chicago must switch tracks to reach the single platform, according to the FRA plans. Track switches slow down passenger trains and disrupt the flow of freight trains, which usually range between 6,000 and 10,000 feet in length and need extra time to stop and start, the FRA plans added.

WisDOT and Illinois Department of Transportation, in partnership with Amtrak and in coordination with FRA, want to expand Hiawatha Service to have 10 round trips every day of the week, according to FRA plans. The plan requires nine infrastructure projects to be constructed and one set of additional Amtrak equipment acquired before the 10-round trip program can start, FRA plans said.

The project is funded by a 2017 FRA Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) grant to WisDOT, according to transportation officials. The FRA gave up to $5.05 million to the state that year, and approved funding for projects totaling up to $56.9 million according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

“These funds will help repair and upgrade rail infrastructure that will increase safety and service,” said then-U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao.

Construction will take from June of 2023 to June of 2025, WisDOT officials said.

The MARS was served by 14 trains daily and had an average daily ridership of 460 in 2017, according to the FRA. Around 167,000 passengers used the track that year, and the track is owned by Canadian Pacific.

Most Illinois passengers who fly out of Milwaukee drive to Mitchell airport and use the inexpensive parking there, Harold Mester, airport director of communications, told The Daily Reporter. Few airline passengers use the airport rail station coming in from Illinois and virtually no rail passengers from Milwaukee take the train to the airport, he added.

Trains from Chicago don’t start early enough at MKE in time for morning flights and the train service doesn’t have a late-night departure, Mester said. “We have continuously advocated for the addition of early morning and late-night trains to make the Amtrak Hiawatha a more viable option for Illinois travelers,” he added.

Milwaukee County Transit System Route 80 or Green Line have frequent service, including early morning and late-night hours, from Milwaukee downtown and many neighborhoods, Mester noted. The routes drop passengers off at the terminal as well.

At Chicago O’Hare International Airport, daily parking attached to the terminal is $42 a day and parking in the economy lot is $15 per day. At MKE, daily parking attached to the terminal is $14 per day and parking in the economy parking lot is $8 per day.

The Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) Blue Line is the easiest and most affordable way to get to O’Hare via public transit, and the train system known as the “L” goes throughout the city of Chicago and surrounding suburbs, according to the O’Hare website. The O’Hare Transfer Station has access to Metra’s North Central Service trains to downtown or the suburbs, the website added.

The Blue Line service operates 24 hours a day, with trains coming in as soon as every three minutes on weekday afternoons, according to a CTA schedule.

In May, WisDOT released plans to expand passenger rail service through Amtrak, including extending the Hiawatha Service to Green Bay by 2050. The agency said improvements to Wisconsin rail service could bump ridership up to 250,000 people in the next 10 years and attract 1.6 million passengers by 2050.