Governor Evers announced yesterday $35MM in awards over the next 5 years to improve bike and ped infrastructure in Wisconsin, including $1.3MM to build a ramp (and make other trail improvements) just south of Shorewood, on the Milwaukee River Line near the UWM Campus. The new ADA-compliant ramp will be suitable for use by pedestrians and bike riders (and other heroes of micromobility), and will replace some of the informal (and often unsafe) pedestrian trails that have existed in that area for many years.
The new ramp will be located near the intersection of N. Cambridge Avenue and E. Hampshire Street (the intersection where the famous “boat house” is located). The ramp will provide a much better and more convenient connection between the southwest side of the UWM campus, and the OLT, compared to the existing ramp options (the ramp at Riverside High School at Locust, and the trail connections at the Shorewood/Milwaukee border).
The new funds come from the federal Transportation Alternatives Program (“TAP”), and are designed to make it easier and safer for folks to choose to get around using non-motor-vehicle methods.
Construction on the project will not happen right away (as there is a 20% “local matching” requirement to TAP funds, and the County budget is already streatched thin). But the trail improvement on this part of the OLT is much closer to being built now, then it was before the Governor's announcement.
For more details about this project, see the Governor’s Press Release, the State’s list of projects designated for TAP funds, and last year’s Urban Milwaukee article regarding the proposed project.
The securing of these funds is the result of several years of work/attention by many active transportation advocates, including at the Wis Bike Fed (e.g., Kirsten Finn, Dave Schlabowske, Jake Newborn), Greater Shorewood Bikers, and with the County (in particular, Jessica Wineberg, the County’s Trails Coordinator).
