The 16th Street Bridge, located just south of the Helfaer Recreation Center, was reopened yesterday after reports of a “suspicious package” turned out to be a false alarm.
An unattended backpack left on the bridge led the Milwaukee Police Department to close down the road at 1:10 p.m. as a precaution. MPD lifted the closure at 3:45 after its bomb unit discovered that the backpack was empty.
According to Andrew Brodzeller, associate director of university communication, MPD notified the Department of Public Safety and the university of the closure and handled the entire incident independently.
“All traffic diversion and road closures were managed by the Milwaukee Police Department,” Brodzeller said in an email. “MPD did contact DPS to notify the university of the incident and closure.”
