WisDOT releases redesign, removal concepts for I-794

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation released several different possible redesign or removal concepts for I-794 in downtown Milwaukee.

Concepts released publicly on Thursday show nine possibilities for the freeway’s future. One calls for reconstructing the freeway as is; six concepts call for improving the freeway by increasing adjacent land available for development and reworking access points; and two call for removing the freeway from near the Hoan Bridge to the Marquette Interchange.

The removal concepts would make between 15.4 and 18.3 acres available for redevelopment; only about 3 acres of this land is currently developable. Removal would also make West Clybourn Street a two-way boulevard to fully eliminate the barrier the freeway creates between the East Town neighborhood and the Third Ward, and the Westown neighborhood and the Milwaukee Intermodal Station.

Freeway improvement concepts would make between 3.6 and 6.3 acres developable, reduce the number of on and off ramps and make Clybourn a two-way boulevard. These would also structurally improve the freeway which was built in the mid-1970s.

WisDOT first showed the concepts on Wednesday to a group of stakeholders, including city and county officials as well as business and civic leaders.

Meeting documents show that 2022 traffic on this section of the freeway had mostly returned to pre-pandemic levels.

A traffic analysis found that 68% of the traffic coming from the Hoan Bridge traveled through to the Marquette Interchange and 45% of the traffic from the Marquette Interchange traveled to the Hoan Bridge, meaning the remaining traffic gets off the freeway at some point between those two points, usually at the Lake Interchange.

The proposed project, expected to cost more than $300 million, would rebuild the elevated freeway between North Water Street and the Hoan Bridge, but last year the Rethink 794 coalition called for the agency to study replacing Interstate 794 between North 6th Street and the Hoan Bridge with a boulevard.

Removal of the freeway was included in the draft of Milwaukee’s 2040 Downtown Plan.

Meeting documents show quarterly public meetings with the intent of identifying alternatives for further study. After further review, including an environmental study, a preferred alternative will be selected.

Final design is to be completed in 2025 and 2026. Construction, if funded, would occur between 2026 and 2029.