The Future of the Hoan Bridge

The Hoan Bridge is seen as a lifeline to the South Shore communities, providing a quick and easy commute that connects Downtown businesses with workers and the airport.

So why would the Department of Transportation (DOT) consider scrapping the bridge and replacing it with something else?

The simple answer is age and cost, the DOT says.

But those who support keeping the Hoan Bridge in its current form say the answer isn’t so simple. The controversial proposal to tear down the Hoan Bridge has already led to the formation of the Coalition to Save the Hoan. Coalition members have questioned whether business interests led by the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce are behind the proposal to scrap the bridge, and whether the DOT’s estimated repair costs have been inflated so as to skew the argument.

According to the DOT, the 30-somethingyear-old bridge needs to be redecked and repainted within the next five years. It’s a project that DOT engineers and their usual consultants, HNTB, have estimated to cost between $200 million and $250 million, explained Christopher Klein, executive assistant of the DOT.

Klein said the project would involve removing the entire surface of the bridge and replacing it. In addition, the Lake Interchange, which connects the Hoan to the Marquette Interchange, would need to be revamped, as well as the ramps leading to Downtown. Painting alone would cost $40 million because painting over water requires extensive environmental precautions.

“A redecking means literally the entire surface of the bridge as you know it comes off and a whole new one comes on,” Klein said. “It’s concrete, it’s steel rebar, it’s the structural component of the bridge. It’s not just putting new pavement on.”

Because the once-in-a-generation redecking is so costly, the agency asked the consultant firm HNTB to provide a study of alternatives. That study, completed last fall, came up with two preliminary options, but both “focus on downgrading the roadway from a freeway to an atgrade, four-lane boulevard.”

According to the report, “The merits of this scenario include far simpler and less costly maintenance, and easier, less landintensive connections to local roads.”

HNTB envisioned one alternative that would maximize public access to the lake and local rivers, create a major public port park on the lake, and increase connections to local neighborhoods and Downtown. It claims its other alternative would spur high-rise condos, a “Milwaukee Entertainment Pier,” a water-rail-roadway port-industrial campus, an expanded Great Lakes WATER Institute campus, and surplus land for development. Both options would require some sort of lower lift bridge over the entrance of the port.

HNTB concluded that the alternatives would have a $2.2 billion to $5.7 billion positive economic impact for the city, county and state.

But Klein said the potential economic benefits would not affect the DOT’s decision on the Hoan. “We have no advantage either way,” Klein said. “Our decision is really about the bridge.”

Saving the Hoan

But the Coalition to Save the Hoan sees the renewed fortunes of the South Shore as depending on the existence of the bridge and easy access to Downtown and the East Side.

Milwaukee County Supervisor Patricia Jursik, a Cudahy resident, has already led one community meeting about the future of the Hoan, and will hold another one on Thursday.

“There was an overwhelming response in favor of the Hoan Bridge,” Jursik said of last week’s meeting.

Not only does Jursik oppose tearing down the Hoan, but she questions how the DOT is going about studying it and whether the $200 million redecking estimate is reliable. Jursik was especially critical of a letter sent to the governor by Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC) head Tim Sheehy asking for additional studies of alternatives to the Hoan. She argued that the Hoan’s future is being determined outside of the normal transportation-planning process, which incorporates input from the public and elected officials.

She said Sheehy’s letter was “totally outside of the process.”

Jursik also questioned HNTB’s optimistic development scenarios in the shadow of the Hoan. A good chunk of that land is industrial, is the site of a sewage treatment plant or is used for port purposes.

Eric Reinelt, director of the Port of Milwaukee, said the Hoan Bridge plays an important role in the port’s success. (Reinelt is not a member of the Coalition to Save the Hoan.)

“What really makes the Port of Milwaukee a successful port is our intermodal access,” Reinelt said. “Largely that is done through the Hoan Bridge. We have to deliver more than 3 million tons of cargo a year, most of it by truck. A lot of that goes through the Hoan Bridge. I think the DOT has to assure us that they have a plan that will handle these 120,000 trucks that come in and out of the port every year.”

HNTB’s sketches eliminated about two-thirds of the port’s acreage, with the idea of reconverting it into commercial uses other than shipping, Reinelt said. “That land that they’ve taken away is vital to this community, to the commodities we handle for this community, such as diesel oil and biodiesel oil, road salt, commercial salt, steel machinery,” Reinelt said. “All of that land is leased out to major corporations that conduct very successful businesses down here.”

Reinelt also wondered if a lower bridge over the port entrance, which would have to be lifted to allow large ships through the port, was practical. “When you have a 700-foot-long ship going dead slow ahead going through a bridge, that’s time consuming,” Reinelt said.

Jursik said the alternatives to the Hoan would disrupt port traffic, or disrupt commuters to and from Downtown. “We have ports along Lake Michigan that would be very happy to take that business,” Jursik said. “The city of Milwaukee cannot afford to lose more businesses and industries.”

The Next Step

Klein said the DOT hasn’t made a decision on the future of the Hoan Bridge, but one must be made by 2012, whether it’s redecking the current bridge or replacing it with something else. Klein said all stakeholders should be involved—including the state, city and county, DOT, businesses, and residents who commute on the bridge.

“Once you make a $200 million decision, you don’t make changes,” Klein said. “So if you’re ever going to talk about doing something different with that bridge, now is the time, before we make that investment.”

He said that although some South Shore residents may believe that they’d lose their Downtown connection, “that link would still be there.”

Jursik said the Coalition to Save the Hoan—which was spearheaded by fellow Supervisors Marina Dimitrijevic and Christopher Larson, and state Rep. Christine Sinicki—would continue their work to preserve the bridge.

“We have been [getting] and continue to get petitions signed to save the Hoan,” Jursik said. “We will be presenting a letter and those petitions to the governor and the DOT ourselves.”