What to know about the Sixth Street 'complete streets' project President Joe Biden plans to highlight in Milwaukee
The Biden administration announced Wednesday a $36.6 million allocation for a project to convert a 2.6-mile section of Sixth Street to a "complete street" during his visit to Milwaukee.
The allocation to Milwaukee is one of $3.3 billion awarded to 132 communities as part of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods grant program in fiscal year 2023 and was announced as part of President Joe Biden's visit to Milwaukee on Wednesday.
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Here's what you should know about Milwaukee's Sixth Street project and the city's "Complete Streets" plan:
What is a 'complete street'?
Milwaukee's complete streets efforts seek to make streets safe and convenient to pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users and anyone else who wants to use them, regardless of age or ability.
According to the 2018 legislation approving the policy, the city's complete streets policy prioritizes:
Pedestrian safety, followed by the next-most-vulnerable users.
Street designs that encourage walking, biking and public transit use in a way that "considers the context of the surrounding community as well as the broader urban design needs of the city."
Allowing "users of all ages and abilities to safely, comfortably and conveniently travel across and through the network."
The legislation states that elements of "complete streets" can slow speeding drivers and help lessen disparities in access to a variety of transportation options, crash rates, health outcomes, education, income and employment.
When was the plan to convert Sixth Street to a 'complete street' approved?
Sixth Street's conversion to a complete street is a key project within the downtown long-range comprehensive plan that the Common Council and Mayor Cavalier Johnson approved in 2023.
The plan is known as “Connec+ing MKE – Downtown Plan 2040.”
What work is happening to make Sixth Street in Milwaukee a 'complete street'?
The plan calls for a redesigned north-south street that focuses more on transit, pedestrians and bicycles to better connect downtown to both north and south side neighborhoods.
It calls for reducing the number of vehicle lanes and right-turn "bypasses," adding trees and potentially adding fully separated bike lanes, transit lanes and "enhanced transit stops."
Under construction is the stretch of Sixth Street from West North Avenue to West National Avenue, described in a White House fact sheet as "an important corridor connecting predominantly Black communities on the northside through the downtown economic core south to the regional intermodal station and the gateway of Milwaukee’s Hispanic communities on the southside."
In addition to physical street alterations, the project will include changes "easing the load on the city's combined sewer system," the document states.
It would build on the momentum generated by the relocated Milwaukee Public Museum, coming to North Sixth Street and West Highland Avenue, by making it more accessible and spur adjacent private development, the plan said.
The redesigned street also would "embody the vision" of a connected downtown linking to such destinations as Bronzeville, Halyard Park, Hillside Terrace, Milwaukee Area Technical College, the Brewery District, the Deer District, the expanding Baird Center convention facility, West Wisconsin Avenue, the Iron District and Walker’s Point.
Sixth Street is among a series of "catalytic" projects and Milwaukee streets that are getting similar makeovers.
That includes such downtown streets as North Van Buren Street, North Water Street, North Jefferson Street and East Michigan Street.
Other streets to be reconstructed include West Villard Avenue, between Sherman Boulevard and Teutonia Avenue. It will get protected bike lanes, wider sidewalks, a pedestrian plaza and other features to improve safety and spur commercial development.
White House says Milwaukee project is among those meant to 'reconnect' communities divided by infrastructure in past decades
The funding for this and other projects aims to reconnect communities that decades ago were cut off by transportation infrastructure from jobs, schools, medical offices and places of worship, according to a U.S. Department of Transportation statement.
"While the purpose of transportation is to connect, in too many communities past infrastructure decisions have served instead to divide," U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement.
The I-94/I-43 construction in the 1960s tore through many of Milwaukee's communities of color but also prompted expansion of nearby streets for access ramps and additional traffic, according to the statement.
Republican Party of Wisconsin slams Biden visit
Republican Party of Wisconsin Chairman Brian Schimming slammed Biden's visit.
“Instead of paying us a visit to brag about his abysmal record, the President should be offering working families an apology for Bidenomics," he said in a statement.
Lawrence Andrea and Molly Beck of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this story.
Alison Dirr can be reached at [email protected]. Tom Daykin can be emailed at [email protected] and followed on Instagram, X and Facebook.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Biden to highlight Milwaukee 'complete streets' project. What to know.
