It doesn’t take much to kindle a conspiracy theory these days. Roll out an idea to replace the dowdy Hoan Bridge and you’d think it was a secret plan to relocate the Guantanamo prison to Bay View.
The report on the bridge was released six months ago by the state Department of Transportation, completed by the firm HNTB, the original designers of the Hoan. It suggests we could save as much as $3 billion in taxes and enhance lakefront development by replacing the Hoan with a lower-rise roadway resembling the Sixth Street bridge.
I read the report, drove back and forth across the Hoan, and walked much of its footprint. The way I see it, a new bridge would be a huge upgrade over what we’ve got – an overbuilt freeway 120 feet in the air that turns some of the city’s most valuable lakefront property into a grimy stretch of parking lots and road salt storage.
Notice I’ve used the words “new bridge.” There are noplans to eliminate a bridge over the harbor of Milwaukee.
The Coalition to Save the Hoan would have you believe otherwise. Coalition leaders – including Milwaukee County Supervisors Patricia Jursik, Marina Dimitrijevic and Christopher Larson, Democratic state Rep. Christine Sinicki, and the mayors of South Milwaukee, Oak Creek, Cudahy and St. Francis – believe removing the faded golden arches is part of a hidden agenda to close off access to all points south.
In August, Jursik claimed the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce was in league with the state in “a clandestine effort to tear down an economic lifeline used by tens of thousands of drivers every day.”
That’s absurd. Why would the state and the chamber of commerce – whose incoming chairman, Tim Sullivan, is CEO of Bucyrus International, headquartered in South Milwaukee – want to cordon off the South Side?
Look at the facts: As HNTB points out, the elevated Hoan was built in 1972 to interstate standards, with an “exceedingly” complex system of ramps that take up precious acreage. But the idea of a freeway going south was killed decades ago, making much of that infrastructure unnecessary.
Meanwhile, the Hoan is wearing out. It needs to be redecked by 2013. That means tearing off everything down to the girders, replacing the pavement and steel supports, and repainting the arches. The DOT estimates this will cost $200 million to $250 million and would buy another 40 years before the entire superstructure of concrete columns and steel girders must be replaced, at an estimated cost of $2 billion to $3 billion. All paid for by state and federal taxpayers.
Compare this to the cheaper alternative: a ground-level four-lane boulevard within the current footprint that would rise some 45 feet above the harbor waters, with plenty of clearance for passing pleasure boats. It would still span the sewerage plant and rail lines before gradually dropping back to street level. About two-thirds of the 2.5-mile stretch now spanned by the high-rise Hoan would thus be a boulevard.
For motorists, there would be little difference. Even with signaled intersections, HNTB says the travel time would increase by only one to two minutes for the entire 2.5-mile distance. To allow passage of commercial ships, the 45-foot-high bridge could be lifted higher: HNTB estimates it would open once a day, delaying autos for six minutes.
In short, there would still be a convenient link to the South Side, and no change whatsoever in the Lake Parkway stretching from Bay View to Layton Avenue in Cudahy – the roadway that triggered some of the recent growth in the southeastern suburbs. Jursik and company would have you believe an average increase of 90 seconds in the commute time to Downtown would stall this development. Let me repeat: That’s absurd.
The cost of a lower bridge and boulevard is estimated at $220 million: roughly the cost of redecking the Hoan, while saving the $2 billion to $3 billion needed to replace the superstructure.
The new design would free up waterfront property – mostly city-owned – for recreational, commercial and residential development. Imagine parklands, a bike path, an entertainment pier, restaurants or even a hotel located along this prime lakefront land. HNTB estimates the creation of 7.6 million to 18.4 million square feet of new buildings and 5,000 to 9,900 housing units, with a total value of $2.2 million to $5.7 million.
This neglected waterfront could be transformed just as the Menomonee Valley was. The old high-rise Sixth Street Viaduct spanned an industrial wasteland, while the beautiful bridge that replaced it dips to the valley’s floor, helping spur the development of the Harley-Davidson Museum, Iron Horse Hotel, Potawatomi Bingo Casino expansion and a dozen businesses.
“DOT ought to be complimented for thinking beyond just moving automobiles,” says Milwaukee Ald. Bob Bauman, who backs the new idea.
Indeed. Replacing the Hoan Bridge deserves serious consideration, not conspiracy theories by fear-peddling politicians who rule out imaginative reforms before having a good grasp of the facts. We’ve seen enough of that lately.
