Canal
St. impact on neighborhood to be monitored Bids will be let in March, work
starts in April
Jan.
17, 2005 -- Construction of the western half
of the Canal St. extension will include measures to
ensure that the Canal St. - Miller Park connection
does not mean significantly more traffic in the Story
Hill neighborhood, officials said last week.
"Certainly
it's not our intention to hook a public road with
a private road," said George Schulz, a senior
traffic engineer with HNTB, which is working on the
project.
Schulz
and Brian Swenson, a vice president of the firm, spoke
to residents last week at the Story Hill Neighborhood
Association quarterly meeting.
Bids
for the project will be let in March, and construction
is expected to begin in April. When completed, Canal
St. will connect with the southeast corner of Miller
Park property.
Cars
then will be able to travel on the ring roads around
Miller Park to Mitchell Blvd. and Story Pkwy. Click
here
for a map showing the roads and connections..
Game
days: three lanes of traffic into the stadium parking
lot; three lanes of traffic out -- hear about it from
sr. George Schulz, senior traffic engineer.
A
concern for project engineers, Schulz said, is that
Canal St. is likely to have a 35 mph speed limit,
but the stadium ring roads -- which are private roads
-- are built for speeds of 15 to 20 mph.
Project
officials would like to discourage through traffic,
he said.
“We’d
like to make some sort of distriction between the
public road and the private road,” he said.
HNTB's Brian Swenson explaining plans for
the Canal St. extension to Miller Park
One
possibility is erecting a gateway to mark the start
of the private roads, Swenson said. Officials have
discussed moving the gateway right off Story Pkwy.
for that purpose.
The stadium district erected the Story Pkwy. gate
a few years ago without consulting area residents,
and some neighbors intensely dislike it.
Take our arch. Please
Another
possibility, Swenson said, is using different pavement
types on the private roads.
On
game days, traffic in the neighborhood isn't expected
to change much from current game day counts, he said.
Overall,
he said, “obviously, you’re going to have
some traffic when we put a roadway in, but how do
we manage that so it doesn’t become a problem?”
“We
believe we’ve got a plan and a concept that
can operate to everyone’s satisfaction,”
he said.
If
all else fails, the police can be asked to enforce
the "private" in "private road, "but
“no one wants to get into an enforcement situation
out here,” he said.
Story
Hill neighbors say 'no thanks' to Canal St. traffic
Oct.
4, 2003 -- Canal St. should end east of Miller
Park to prevent traffic from flowing across the stadium's
parking lots into Story Hill, according to neighborhood
residents.
The Canal
Street project, scheduled to start next year, will
connect the east end to the west end of the Menomonee
Valley. To read about the Canal St. project and view
maps, click here.
While
HNTB traffic engineer Ken Voight said the project,
in the short-term, would add only about 300 cars per
day to Mitchell Blvd. if traffic crosses the stadium
lots, the consensus among neighbors at the Story Hill
Neighborhood Association quarterly meeting was: No.
Another
300 cars on Mitchell Blvd. is a 15% increase from
the current 2,000 daily that Voight said now travel
the street. By 2,025, when 16,300 cars are projected
to be on Canal St., 2,900 cars are expected to be
on Mitchell Blvd., Voight said during the quarterly
meeting of the Story Hill Neighborhood Association.
That is up 900, or 45%, from today's count.
HNTB's Brian Swenson explains the Canal St.
project
The traffic
projections were done by the Southeastern Wisconsin
Regional Planning Commission, the folks who brought
you freeway expansion plans.
County
Supervisor Lynne DeBruin said that neither Mitchell
Blvd. nor Story Parkway, both county roads, were designed
to handle heavy traffic volumes. One neighbor cautioned
that it is unlikely that many of the trucks coming
off of Canal Street would be able to fit under the
I-94 overpass at Mitchell Blvd.
While Story
Hill residents said the traffic should be prevented
from entering the stadium's gates, the Milwaukee Brewers
-- key players in the decision -- have yet to state
their position. The Brewers have an interest in ensuring
access to their ticket windows and ancillary businesses
like TGIFriday's, but it also is likely that they
will not want unfettered access to their parking lots
on game days, when they need to track cars and collect
parking revenue.
The issue
is scheduled to be discussed Thursday by the Stadium
District Board. The board owns the stadium property,
including the parking lots. The meeting is scheduled
for 3 p.m. in the Gov. Tommy G. Thompson Conference
Room in Miller Park.
The city
and officials from HNTB, the project's engineering
consultants, want to move quickly so Canal St. can
help out with the traffic load during reconstruction
of the Marquette Interchange.
Ald. Michael
Murphy asked HNTB and city representatives to meet
again with neighborhood residents.
Canal
Street project may have traffic impact on Story Hill
Aug.
13 -- The engineers working on the planned
$20 million extension and reconstruction of Canal
Street say they want to minimize any potential disturbance
to Story Hill caused by increased traffic.
While it's
unclear how much -- if any -- additional traffic will
find its way to the neighborhood, HNTB officials are
offering to meet with neighborhood residents next
month to listen to their concerns and to ideas about
how to address them.
Story Hill
Neighborhood Association President Sandy Rusch Walton
said such a meeting is under consideration. The SHNA
Board is expected to discuss the Canal Street project
at its meeting Monday night.
The reconstruction,
scheduled for next year, will connect the east end
to the west end of the Menomonee Valley. It is expected
to spur economic development and to attract significant
new traffic volume -- several thousand cars every
day.
Traffic
could be especially heavy during reconstruction of
the Marquette Interchange, as drivers seek alternate
routes.
To read
about the Canal St. project and view maps, click here.
While it
appears likely that most people heading north or south
at the west end of the new Canal St. would take Miller
Park Way (US 41), they could, under current plans,
drive the Miller Park ring road or across the parking
lots and exit on Mitchell Blvd. They then could travel
on Mitchell Blvd. or turn on Story Parkway to drive
through the neighborhood.
Ald. Michael
Murphy said the neighborhood had been "bombarded"
enough by the proposal to expand and double-deck I-94
(also an HNTB production). The Canal Street project
also could have a negative impact on the neighborhood,
he said.
"It's
completely unfair if they don't have a thoughtful
traffic solution," he said. Murphy is expected
to brief the board Monday.
Miller
Park officials, who would have to allow traffic to
pass across stadium property, have not taken a formal
stand on the project. Early discussions have made
clear, however, that they want to make sure their
tenant, the Milwaukee Brewers, and residents of surrounding
neighborhoods are satisfied with project plans.
