WisDOT studying redesign of Walker’s Point interchange

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By TOM DAYKIN

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

A Milwaukee freeway interchange serving Walker’s Point would be rebuilt to make neighborhood streets safer and better connect the area – while creating potential development sites.

That’s under three new design options from a Wisconsin Department of Transportation study. A fourth option would eliminate the Interstate 43-94/National Avenue interchange.

WisDOT is seeking feedback on all four design concepts.

They can be seen online, and at a June 3 open house from 4 to 6 p.m. at Milwaukee Area Technical College Walker’s Square Education Center, 816 W. National Ave.

WisDOT plans to present a specific proposal this fall.

That will lead to an environmental review and more design work, with construction occurring in about five to 10 years − if the project obtains additional funding. The study phase is financed with a $2 million federal grant and $500,000 in WisDOT funds.

One plan eliminates all ramps and creates new connections for West Walker and West Mineral streets between South Sixth and South Ninth streets.

Three other plans maintain the interchange but reconfigure the ramps.

One keeps on- and off-ramps centered near the intersection of Mineral and Sixth streets.

The interchange is redesigned to create a southbound on-ramp starting at Walker and Ninth streets, and a northbound off-ramp ending at National Avenue and Seventh Street.

Two other design concepts use a similarly simplified ramp layout.

One adds a new connection for Walker Street between Sixth and Ninth streets, with the other adding a new connection for Mineral Street between those streets.

The current interchange features four of the six ramps connecting to neighborhood streets, such as Ninth Street, instead of state highways, such as Sixth Street and National Avenue.

That leads to the ramps conflicting with lots of pedestrians, WisDOT says.

Also, the interchange configuration is complex, including ramps with tight curves. And three intersections have side-by-side ramps, increasing the chance for wrong-way freeway drivers, according to the department.

The first reconfiguration proposal simplifies the interchange, modernizes the design, and avoids tight ramp curves. It reduces the ramps connecting to Ninth Street from four to one, and removes two intersections with side-by-side ramps.

But, an added intersection leg increases conflict points at National Avenue and Seventh Street, and one block of two-way Ninth Street might confuse drivers, WisDOT says.

The other two plans involving new Walker and Mineral street connections provide a similar layout that avoids tight curves and side-by-side ramps, while removing or reducing Ninth Street ramps.

But they also increase conflict points with the new Walker and Mineral street segments.

Removing all the ramps would divert traffic to other nearby interchanges, including those at Lapham Boulevard, Becher Street, and Clybourn Street/25th Street – with that diverted traffic creating more “vehicular exposure on the local roads,” WisDOT says.

Fewer ramps create development sites

Meanwhile, changing the interchange could make land available for other public or private uses, according to the department.

That includes a parcel next to Bruce-Guadalupe Middle School, 920 S. Ninth St., as well as land west of Sixth Street between National Avenue and Mineral Street.

Eliminating the interchange would add more land that could be developed.

Newer uses near the interchange include 704 Place Apartments, which opened in 2019 at 704 W. National Ave., and National DIY Skatepark, which uses part of an underused parking lot at West National Avenue and South Eighth Street.