Preliminary roadwork for the multimillion-dollar Marquette Interchange Project is set to begin April 1 with the tearing up and reconstruction of West Clybourn Street, according to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.
Roads on and around Marquette will experience bouts of construction and closure for about nine months, but collaborative efforts between Marquette and WisDOT will reroute visitors and students around the construction.
The construction will take place on Clybourn between North 16th and North 10th streets and will last until December of this year, said Nick Martin, Department of Transportation construction project manager.
It involves the relocation of several utilities in the roadway, including city of Milwaukee communication, electric, water, sewer system, street lighting and traffic signals, he said.
In addition, the Clybourn project entails reconstruction on the 16th Street Bridge over Interstate 94, as well as construction on a new bridge to pass over the ramp connecting I-94 East and Interstate 43 North, under West Torie Hill Street, Martin said.
Although involved traffic studies have not yet been conducted for the Clybourn project area, Martin anticipates "a fair amount of traffic disruption."
In April, North 16th Street will be closed at West Clybourn Street and West Clybourn Street will be closed between North 10th and North 11th streets, he said.
In May, North 13th Street will be closed until early December, as well as West Clybourn Street between North 16th and North 10th streets, Martin said.
The North 13th Street traffic will be rerouted to West St. Paul Avenue and then to West Wisconsin Avenue, "which is easy enough," he said.
The closure of North 16th Street will be detoured to North 26th Street and then to West Wisconsin Avenue.
"It's pretty out of the way," Martin said. "But that's due to the (Menomonee) Valley."
North 16th Street will be closed sometime during construction, according to Marquette Vice President Toby Peters, and visitors will be rerouted to North 35th Street and then to West Wisconsin Avenue.
"Granted, those streets are busy, too," Martin said, adding that a specific plan for dealing with commuter traffic has not yet been agreed upon.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is currently working collaboratively with the surrounding area — especially Marquette — to determine its specific needs, he said.
"Marquette is one of the biggest stakeholders in the interchange," said Ben Tracy, director of university communication.
To help traffic run as smoothly as possible during construction, a commuter fair will be held at Marquette University's Alumni Memorial Union in late February or early March, Tracy said. The fair will provide commuters with information on alternate routes and public transit, and will feature a model of the new interchange, he said.
"The fair will help show what commuters have to expect," Tracy said.
The Marquette Interchange Project entails rebuilding the junction of I-94, I-43 and I-794, an endeavor currently priced at $810 million, according to the WisDOT Web site.
Construction on the actual interchange will not occur until spring 2005, said David Nguyen, design project manager.
Although, "you may see preparatory activity on freeway construction in the late fall (2004)," he said.
Because the project affects a vast amount of commuters, the WisDOT is currently developing a Web site to keep individual drivers informed of the traffic conditions and detours on their specific route, said Joyce Harms, WisDOT community involvement coordinator.
The Web site will allow commuters to enter their route profiles — start location and destination — and alert them of traffic jams and detours resulting from the construction, Harms said.
"This is special because it provides very specialized information," she said of the Web site, which is planned to be up and running by late summer or early fall.
In another preliminary interchange project, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District is currently working on construction to lower sewers 10 feet, according to MMSD Project Manager Larry Ellis. The construction involves large wooden planks on the ramp between West Clybourn and North 11th streets.
The MMSD project starts on West Wisconsin Avenue between 10th and 11th streets and will go until North 6th and West Clybourn streets, he said.
"Normally street work doesn't affect us at all," Ellis said. But the Interchange project consists of plans to construct exit and entrance ramps about 25 feet below the current road surface level.
The ramps must be constructed deeper than current surface levels because exit and entrance ramps will only be in the right lane for the completed Marquette Interchange, he said.
Work on the MMSD project began Nov. 4 and will be completed in December 2005, Ellis said.
