DOT says 'No' to bikes/peds on Milwaukee's Hoan Bridge

For the second time in a decade, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation rejected a proposal to add a bike and pedestrian lane to the Daniel Hoan Memorial Bridge connecting downtown Milwaukee with neighborhoods and suburbs to the south.

On December 10, DOT Secretary Mark Gottlieb cited the cost and the projected traffic problems in declining to include the pathway in the plans for a major bridge rehabilitation set to begin in 2013.

The DOT similarly rejected a bike and pedestrian proposal in 2002, and instead decided to build an on-street route that would accomodate bicyclists traveling between Bay View and downtown. Little of that work has been done, although a raised bike lane was installed on Bay Street this year. An off-street pathway on an abandoned rail corridor and improvements to Water Street are scheduled to start in 2013.

State Senator Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, one of the leading proponents during this latest push for a Hoan Bridge bike lane, criticized the DOT decision.

Larson ollected more than 5,000 signatures on petitions supporting the bike path, and the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin submitted a supporting letter with signatures from 40 local business and government leaders.

The prevailing sentiment, however, was that the bike lane would be used by too few people to justify the cost.

Creating a lane for bicycles and pedestrians would have cost $9.4 million for closing off one northbound lane to traffic. Building a separate bike path above the current roadway would have cost $94.6 million, according to an analysis of alternatives prepared by the consulting firm Graef USA. Reconstruction of the bridge is due to begin in 2013 and will cost $275 million to $350 million.