MILWAUKEE — 2023 was a busy year for the City of Milwaukee's Department of Public Works.
In an effort to make the roadways safer, the city completed 50 traffic calming measures across the Milwaukee area. This year, city engineers anticipate being even busier, with new projects aiming at roadway safety.
"We had a handful of big transformation projects we're very happy with," city engineer Kevin Muhs said.
This year the city has five large projects planned in partnership with the state and federal government.
"We are standing at one here at Wall Street. We also have one on Lake Drive on the northeast side and the south side of Howard Avenue as well. Those are all getting full reconstructions. We have a few resurfacing projects... as well," said Muhs.
Muhs adds that the city also plans to do an additional 50 traffic-calming projects this year, from speed humps to bump outs to raised crosswalks.
"We are going to do about 20 crosswalks. So think about a speed hump with a flat surface on top for the cross walk to go across," said Muhs.
Some locations that will see those raised crosswalks are near schools. Muhs said these are high crash areas, such as Wind Lake Avenue on the south side near Hayes Bilingual School and Forest Home Avenue near Manitoba School.
"The idea is to slow traffic at that point of conflict with people crossing the street and again near schools, particularly schools trying to make that as safe of a crossing possible," said Muhs.
Muhs said while safety was the focus for last year, that theme continues into this year, using roadway redesign to improve the transit experience for all users of the road.
"We think improving safety on the city streets is really critical whether or not someone's walking, biking, taking transit or driving," said Muhs.
Along with the 50 traffic calming projects, the city also plans to add an additional 10 miles of protected bike lanes this year.
To view the 2024 projects, click here.
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