Milwaukee’s Hoan Bridge will be lit before end of summer
The Hoan Bridge across the Milwaukee River will be lit by the end of summer.
Light the Hoan, a community-funded initiative, has raised enough money to install lighting on the west side of the bridge before the end of summer, the group announced Wednesday.
Installation along the two-mile stretch of Interstate 794 will begin in late July, Light the Hoan said. The lights will start to be tested in September. An official lighting ceremony date is yet to be set.
Thousands of LED lights will soon adorn the west side of the bridge. The lights will be animated, change colors and will respond to events like Brewers’ home runs.
The funds were raised from May 2018 through January 2020 to start this phase of the project. Light the Hoan still needs to raise the last $1.1 million to light the east side of the bridge, the group said.
Light the Hoan has a $4.5 million target to fund the entire project.
“In times of crisis, light can be a symbol of hope and comfort. We know that lighting a bridge doesn’t solve our health or social challenges, but, from day one, we wanted this project to be about more than lights on a bridge,” said Michael Hostad, co-founder of Light the Hoan, in the news release.
The group received a $1.2 million gift from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation on behalf of an anonymous donor late last year. The goal had been to complete the project before Milwaukee hosted the 2020 Democratic National Convention. Before the coronavirus pandemic, the convention was scheduled to take place in Milwaukee over four days starting July 13.