Also on this page: WisDOT plan hurts Milwaukee businesses. City seeks peer review of I-94 plan.

Groups rip North-South
I-94 impact statement

Jan. 28, 2008 - The Wisconsin Department of Transportation failed to adequately consider health, environmental and economic impacts of the unfunded $1.9 billion North-South I-94 expansion plan, according to a group of environmental and legal organizations.

"We object to the failure of the (draft environmental impact statement) to adequately address air quality and related health issues as well as serious environmental issues, including greenhouse gas emissions and global warming impacts," the organizations said.

The group included the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin Foundation, Inc.; attorney Dennis Grzezinksi; Midwest Environmental Advocates Inc.; the Sierra Club Great Waters Group; and 1000 Friends of Wisconsin Inc.

Citizens Allied for Sane Highways also supported the response to the draft environmental impact statement. CASH, though, filed its own response.*

The comment deadline was Friday.

"We also object to the fact that the proposal fails to comply with Title VI and Environmental Justice requirements, and unreasonably and disproportionately burdens the disabled, minority and low income communities, especially in the city of Milwaukee, while providing those communities lesser benefits from the project," they said.

Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance.

The department also did not sufficiently evaluate the impacts of devoting a disproportionate share of funding to highways rather than transit, the organizations said.

"This is neither a trivial nor a hypothetical concern in the context of the state's plans for building far more highways than it can afford to pay for, or that the state and local municipalities can afford to patrol and maintain," they wrote.

The DEIS does not mention shortfalls in state transportation funding or in the Federal Highway Trust Fund, they said. That means, they said, that the DEIS "ignores the inevitable resulting competition between highways and transit for funding, and the effect of that competition on racial and environmental justice issues."

"WisDOT insists on highway widening despite what it concedes will be only “minimal' effects on travel times. As the City of Milwaukee has recognized, the hundreds of millions of dollars for expansion could more than fund substantial transit improvements that would benefit city residents, steps WisDOT refuses to take, even though the benefits to low income and minority communities from improving transit far outweigh the incremental travel time improvements for white suburban commuters," they said.

Milwaukee residents will bear most of the negative consequences of the proposed highway expansion, they said.

"Many of the direct adverse effects of highway expansion are local in nature -- those who live closest to the proposed new highway lanes will be most heavily exposed to some of the pollution caused by vehicular traffic -- noise, vibration, light and certain air emissions, in particular," they wrote. "These adverse affects are not, however, meaningfully addressed, despite the fact that it is residents of Milwaukee - the region’s only majority-minority city - who will disproportionately suffer them."

*Full disclosure: Milwaukee Rising editor Gretchen Schuldt is CASH co-chair.

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City seeks peer review of
I-94 plan

Jan. 2, 2008 -- An independent panel of experts should be assembled to review the seriously flawed draft Environmental Impact Statement for the North-South I-94 freeway reconstruction and expansion plan, according to the city's top public works officials.

"The DEIS is significantly deficient with respect to alternative analysis as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and does not adequately justify freeway expansion," Public Works Commissioner Jeff Mantes and City Engineer Jeff Polenske wrote.

Peer review panels in transportation planning include professionals who have "hands-on" experience with both traffic issues. They help local staff identify problems and develop workable solutions, according to the US Department of Transportation.

The I-94 project is expected to cost $1.9 billion, plus hundreds of millions of dollars in interest. WisDOT has not proposed a funding plan.

Mantes and Polenske, in their letter to Wisconsin Department of Transportation Project Manager Robert Gutierrez, said federal law required WisDOT to analyze alternatives in enough detail to allow members of the public to assess them.

"The DEIS as written, however, dismisses rapid transit improvements as an alternative to freeway expansion...without analysis of potential rapid transit improvements," Mantes and Polenske said.

They continued: "Such perfunctory treatment of transit alternatives within the DEIS for major freeway expansion projects is not only contrary to NEPA requirements but also contrary to accepted regional transportation planning principles and the project development process."

The letter, first reported by MilwaukeeWorld, sought an extension to the state's Dec. 31 deadline for public comment on the draft EIS. Others who also sought deadline extensions included Citizens Allied for Sane Highways, Ald. Robert Bauman, and the 27th Street Business Preservation Association.* The Federal Highway Administration last week granted the requests and extended the deadline to Jan. 25.

Polenske and Mantes said WisDOT's draft EIS relies heavily on the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission's transportation reports to dismiss the ability of transit to relieve traffic congestion. SEWRPC itself, however, said its transportation recommendations need further study and refinement as specific projects progress.

After the peer review, the city's Department of Public Works may recommend further study of transit alternatives, the letter said.

"Given the significant and lasting financial, socioeconomic, and environmental ramifications of the selected approach to infrastructure improvements in the north-south corridor, it is essential that all necessary information be made available to allow decision makers to select an alternative that best meets the current and future needs of citizens in the region and the state," they said.

*Full disclosure: Milwaukee Rising editor Gretchen Schuldt is a CASH co-chair.

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WisDOT plan hurts Milwaukee businesses
Agency needs to modify freeway design, CASH says

Dec. 26, 2007 -- The Wisconsin Department of Transportation should modify its reconstruction plan for North-South I-94 because of the potential damage to existing commercial strips in Milwaukee, especially the South 27th Street business area, Citizens Allied for Sane Highways said Wednesday.

WisDOT, in its draft Environmental Impact Statement for the unfunded $1.9 billion reconstruction and expansion project, acknowledges that building a Drexel Ave. interchange in Oak Creek is likely to induce development there while proving harmful to efforts to redevelop the S. 27th St. commercial corridor in Milwaukee.

The Drexel Ave. interchange also may “discourage reinvestment in existing urban corridors,” according to WisDOT.

“WisDOT is encouraging sprawl at Milwaukee’s expense,” CASH co-chair Gretchen Schuldt said. “The state’s policy appears to be to drain as much business away from Milwaukee as possible – the 27th Street business district appears to be a particular target.”

Businesses and institutions on and near the street already are protesting WisDOT’s proposal to close a ramp that brings to the street traffic coming north through the Mitchell Interchange. Opponents of WisDOT’s plan contend that the move will reduce access to the area and hurt the businesses there.

WisDOT should change its plan to eliminate the negative impacts on existing commercial strips in the city, CASH co-chair Robert Trimmier said.

“In the perfect Department of Transportation world, the messy little problems of urban America would just go away, and a world of pristine blacktop and fast-food oases would prevail,” he said. “In the meantime, make the city pay for highways it doesn't want, doesn't need, and can't afford.”

*Full disclosure: Milwaukee Rising editor Gretchen Schuldt is a CASH co-chair.

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