Ahead Of First Hearing, Advocates Press Criticisms Of Widening Milwaukee Freeway

By Erik Gunn, Wisconsin Examiner

December 13, 2022

Opponents of adding two additional lanes to a Milwaukee stretch of Interstate 94 pressed their criticism of the proposal Monday at a public hearing on the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s plan. In testimony at Monday’s hearing — the first of two this week — and at a press conference beforehand Monday afternoon, critics of widening the highway raised objections that included wetland preservation, economic fairness, combating environmental racism and curbing climate change. The second hearing is Wednesday.

WisDOT’s plan for the 3.5-mile segment of the freeway calls for modernizing interchanges and reconfiguring the exit to the Milwaukee Brewers’ stadium. The department and outside advocates for the eight-lane proposal contend that it would improve safety, reduce congestion and reduce traffic volumes on neighboring thoroughfares. The department also points to improvements on bicycle and pedestrian rights-of-way crossing I-94 between the Hank Aaron State Trail and the Oak Leaf Trail. The dispute over WisDOT’s plan for the highway has opened up a rare point of division between the administration of Gov. Tony Evers and environmental as well as urban advocacy groups that have been among his strongest supporters Critics of the expansion say that much more could be done to make the plan more bike- and pedestrian-friendly. They also argue more should be invested in public transit.

“To solve our transportation problem requires us to better fund our public transportation system,” said Pastor Richard D. Shaw, president of Milwaukee Inner-city Congregations Allied for Hope, or MICAH, a faith-based community organizing group, at a news conference organized by the Coalition for More Responsible Transportation The coalition has proposed an alternative approach to rebuilding I-94 west of downtown Milwaukee while maintaining its current six-lane configuration, which the group calls “Fix at Six.”

“The Fix at Six plan would rebuild I-94 within a minimized footprint that restores wetlands and green spaces and would revitalize the neighborhoods harmed by the freeway’s original construction,” said Tony Wilkins Gibart, executive director of Midwest Environmental Advocates (MEA), a nonprofit environmental law center. A decade ago, MEA and the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin sued the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) as well as the federal government over the state’s plan to expand the Zoo Interchange on Milwaukee’s West Side.

The lawsuit charged that project violated federal anti-discrimination laws because white suburban drivers were the primary beneficiaries of the design while reduced transit services put Black Milwaukee residents at a disadvantage, unable to pursue jobs, Gibart said. WisDOT agreed to a settlement that promised to increase bus routes to serve urban commuters. A decade later, Gibart said, the issues raised by the Zoo Interchange project have become more stark.

“Climate and the immediate need to cut carbon emissions are even more imminent concerns,” he said. Gibart said the role of systemic racism in urban planning has also become more apparent in that time.

“More people now understand that historical practices such as redlining and siting freeways mean the Black and brown children in the central part of Milwaukee are exposed to harms” that include air pollution, higher rates of asthma and other health hazards such as exposure to lead paint in older homes, he said — problems “made worse because communities of color have been geographically and economically isolated by patterns of urban planning and transportation policy decisions that continue to this day.”

The Fix at Six proposal, advanced a year ago, would trade the additional lanes in the WisDOT proposal for more transit as well as pedestrian- and bike-friendly development.

“The Fix at Six alternative addresses the region’s transportation needs without these downsides of WisDOT’s costly $1.25 billion proposal,” said Dennis Grzezinski, an attorney and legal chair for the Sierra Club’s Wisconsin chapter, at the coalition’s press conference Monday.

“More traffic means increased greenhouse gas emissions, the cause of global warming,” said Terry Wiggins, a Milwaukee member of 350.org, an advocacy group for combating climate change.

Wisconsin Riverkeeper’s Cheryl Nenn said that instead of the greater expense that the eight-lane proposal would require, the city needs “more funding for stormwater management and protection of natural areas and waterways in this highway corridor — not to further degrade them.”

Greg May, transportation policy director for 1000 Friends of Wisconsin, warned of the Milwaukee County Transit System’s looming “fiscal cliff that will result in devastating service cuts for tens of thousands of Milwaukeeans” while the state proposes expanding the highway. “WisDOT is leaving vulnerable populations behind to improve suburban commute times.”

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