Update: Here is the letter sent to area residents promoting the public information meeting.
A four-lane, undivided Nicholson Avenue connecting College and Rawson — a road that is much safer and moves traffic much more efficiently in better connecting South Milwaukee to Highway 794 and beyond.
That’s the recommendation of engineering staff from South Milwaukee and Oak Creek.
Staff from both cities endorsed the undivided option over a divided road that would have featured a median. The latter would have cost more, taken more land from both cities to build and limited driveway access.
The South Milwaukee Public Works and Public Property Committee heard more details about the recommendation at its meeting on Tuesday night.
And you can learn more about the project — and the undivided option — at a public information meeting from 5 to 7 p.m. on Sept. 15 at City Hall.
The proposed undivided design has not changed much from the initial public information meeting in June. A few observations:
- Construction is expected to take place in 2012.
- The project is expected to cost around $4.5 million, with the state picking up 80 percent of the costs and South Milwaukee and Oak Creek splitting the remaining 20 percent. When you add in extra design and engineering costs, our share may top $600,000.
- The undivided option will encroach very little on South Milwaukee properties — taking away maybe two feet of the grassy median north Beech Street, for instance. The trees there will remain.
- It also features sidewalks on both sides of the street, making the road walkable and bikeable.
- While it won’t solve the Rawson/College congestion issues during rush hour, it will help.
- The plan also doesn’t include a roundabout, for now. There is still no word from the U.S. Postal Service on its mail sorting facility at College and Pennsylvania, so the drawings you’ll see at the meeting do not include the roundabout that was called for as part of that project. Could that change? Yes. But I feel strongly we have to move ahead on this project with or without the USPS on board.
I look forward to seeing you at the public information meeting. The City Council will likely formally endorse one of the options at a meeting following the public information meeting.
South Milwaukee Blog 