ACTION ALERT:
By Dianne Dagelen
County parkways and the Monarch Trail blotted over with detention ponds.
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Emergency vehicle access at 84th St. obstructed by Texas U-turns.
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A modern rail system's right-of-way paved over by an overbuilt interchange.
Just some of the "benefits" the
proposed new Zoo Interchange promises to deliver.
"Six lanes or eight lanes?" That's how public debate currently frames options for the Zoo Interchange reconstruction.
However, both the six- and eight-lane "modernization" alternatives have irreversible consequences for the environment,
safety and future transit. Only the third option, the one not talked about, will preserve natural areas, easy access for
emergency vehicles and rail right-of-ways. It's called: No-build.
According to the state Department of Transportation's draft environmental impact statement (EIS), whether it's a six-lane
modernization or an eight-lane, both options will:
• Gobble up green space (57 acres or 75 acres).
• Expand the impermeable, concrete footprint (32% or 43% average).
• Require detention ponds for stormwater runoff (three-pond minimum either way).
• Come with a hefty price tag ($2.1 billion or $2.3 billion).
Our parkways will be affected.
To accommodate runoff from concrete expansion, the DOT will clear-cut 12 acres of parkland
and fill more than six acres of wetlands.
Four acres will be clear-cut at Honey Creek Parkway for a detention pond that will collect heavy metals and petroleum
products, requiring a chain-link fence. This neighborhood eyesore will drive property values down and residents out.
Five acres of Underwood Creek Parkway will be clear-cut for a detention pond, requiring the "relocation" of
the Oak Leaf Bike Trail. The DOT offers to mitigate the mutilation by removing concrete from the remaining creek bottom
(but not the side slopes). However, this would require clear-cutting additional parkway acres.
Although the DOT describes them as "low value," our parkway trees provide oxygen, noise
absorption and visual softening of concrete sprawl. The parks are meant for recreation, not for dumping runoff.
The DOT expects Milwaukee County taxpayers to maintain the ponds and protect them from toxic liability. Built by the Civilian
Conservation Corps, both Honey Creek and Underwood Creek parkways are eligible for the National Register. Don't clear-cut
them. Conserve them.
There's also the matter of the Monarch Trail.
The DOT will replace the south berm of the Monarch Trail with a three-acre pond for toxic freeway runoff. The surrounding
marsh will be filled in, leveled off toward the north berm. Loss of these wetlands will destroy nectaring plants that sustain
the butterflies.
Change in topography could alter the windbreak and affect monarch migration. Widening Swan Blvd. further south will endanger
our remaining oak savanna, where the monarchs roost at night.
We should respect this open space for the rare treasure that it is: a way station for thousands of
monarch butterflies on their annual migration to the Michoacán mountains in Mexico - 2,500 miles away.
Then there's the matter of safety.
The DOT insists that loss of natural areas and increased pollution will be compensated by decreased congestion and thereby
fewer accidents. However, research indicates that expanded expressways soon induce congestion rather than discourage it.
On the recently enlarged Marquette Interchange, traffic already comes to a standstill at rush hour.
Texas U-turns proposed by the DOT pose a safety risk. These wrap-around tentacles, consuming seven acres, require driving
a full extra mile while making three successive left turns in order to access I-94 from 84th St.
Firefighters at Engine House No. 25, 84th St. next to I-94, express alarm concerning emergency vehicle response. The obstacle
course will add time and stress to a job that requires speed and calm.
The U-turns are dangerous and unnecessary. Ditch them.
And what about rail?
Think forward, not backward, to a comprehensive transportation plan - one in which rail is an integral part of connecting
Milwaukee and southeastern Wisconsin. The EIS underestimates increased rail ridership at 100% over the next 20 years.
Train use in Milwaukee shot up 24% in the past year alone. Workers without cars and seniors who do not drive depend upon
mass transit. They deserve tax-supported transportation that they actually can use.
The Milwaukee Common Council recently passed a resolution requesting that the DOT develop and fully analyze a mass transit
alternative.
The Zoo Interchange EIS should include high-speed rail from Milwaukee to Madison, metro rail between Milwaukee and Waukesha
and an intercity rail line from downtown to the County Grounds in Wauwatosa.
Otherwise the new interchange will pave over future rail right-of-ways. The comparative cost of the No-Build plan ($960
million) will allow ample funding for rail and its supporting connections.
So here are my recommendations:
