New bike trail in works
30th Street Corridor may see rail line transformed
Almost one in four Milwaukee residents lives within two miles of an existing bike trail.
But in some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, that drops to fewer than one in 10.
That’s according to a 2017 study by the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, which worked with 10 partners including the City of Milwaukee and the 30th Street Industrial Corridor Corp. The Corridor group is working to change that by bringing a new trail to the heart of those neighborhoods.
The proposed 6.7-mile paved, shared-use trail would parallel a railroad line just west of 30th Street from Havenwoods State Forest on West Silver Spring Drive to the Hank Aaron State Trail near American Family Field.
The groups released a preliminary feasibility study on Jan. 27 that looked at the possibility of developing a trail along the corridor.
“The answer from the findings of this study, backed by decades of trail-building experience from members of the working group of city, county and state leaders, is yes,” the report stated.
The area the trail would pass through once housed major manufacturing companies like A.O. Smith that fueled a thriving neighborhood. But as those companies left in the 1970s and ’80s, they took their good-paying jobs with them. The community struggled to find replacements, and other problems including poverty and crime rose.
But organizations like The Corridor are working to change that, developing business parks like Century City — which the trail would run through — and Community Within The Corridor, a $66 million apartment project.
“We view this (trail) project as a catalytic component of our efforts to revitalize Milwaukee’s 30th Street Corridor. Though it will provide huge social and health benefits to the residents, we are determined that the economic impact benefits Black Milwaukee as well,” Cheryl Blue, executive director of The Corridor, said in a news release.
The 2017 RTC study, “Reconnecting Milwaukee,” found that neighborhoods experiencing inequality in Milwaukee — those where a concentration of the population lives under the poverty line, is unemployed, does not have a high school degree, does not own a vehicle and is either Black or Hispanic — disproportionately lack access to biking and walking facilities.
Across the entire city, 8% of residents live within walking distance of a trail (0.5 miles) and 24% live within biking distance (2 miles). But in neighborhoods that experience inequality, those numbers drop to 3% and 8%.
The study found that adding two trail corridors and extensions of
existing trails in those neighborhoods most lacking access — the 30th Street Corridor, plus one on the south side along the Kinnickinnic River — would increase the citywide numbers to 14% and 59%, and 11% and 66% in the neighborhoods experiencing inequality.
But the 30th Street Corridor trail wouldn’t just provide a recreational diversion.
The RTC estimated the project could save the city and residents more than $22.4 million in direct health care costs, while providing transportation connections to jobs, education centers, grocery stores and green space.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of trails and outdoor spaces and how they improve our lives. This trail has the potential to strengthen neighborhoods in and around the 30th Street Corridor and provide more equitable access to outdoor recreational spaces — reducing health disparities and moving forward the city’s goals in racial equity. This is a challenging project, but the city is committed to working with partners and the community to continue to ensure this project benefits residents and businesses,” Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said in a release.
The trail is part of the city of Milwaukee’s Connecting the Corridor plan, which was approved by the Common Council last November and includes more than 45 projects around everything from complete streets to parks in the neighborhoods around the 30th Street Corridor. Among those projects is another trail on North 20th Street, and the MMSD West Basin, a stretch of land along Lincoln Creek where the trail might pass through that could be turned into green space.
The trail would also serve as a vital link in the Route of the Badger, an effort by the RTC to create a 700-mile network of trails in southeastern Wisconsin.
Willie Karidis, RTC’s Route of the Badger project manager, said the RTC has been looking at the 30th Street Corridor as a potential link in the network since 2016, calling that area of Milwaukee a “trail desert.”
“Completing a trail along the 30th Street Industrial Corridor is the most important trail investment that can be made in the Milwaukee region in terms of creating more equitable trail access for all,” he said in a release. “The trail will help take Milwaukee residents with safe access to a trail from 25,000 to 200,000 people and generate enormous economic, social and health opportunities for southeast Wisconsin.”
The feasibility study outlined the route for the trail, broken into three roughly two-mile segments.
The Northern segment, from Havenwoods State Forest at Silver Spring Drive to Capitol Drive, is near a Boys & Girls Club that the study said could draw traffic. That segment could also connect with the Oak Leaf Trail via a short on-street route.
The Central segment, from Capitol Drive to North Avenue, would pass through Century City plus another redevelopment, the former Briggs & Stratton plant that is being turned into an apartment complex.
The Southern segment, from North Avenue to the Hank Aaron State Trail on Bud Selig Drive, would pass through Miller Valley and provide a connection to American Family Field via mostly offstreet trail.
For most of its route, the 10-foot-wide ADA accessible trail would parallel the railroad tracks, with the possibility of physical barriers — fences or vegetation — being erected when it ran close to the tracks. In some “pinch points” like bridges, where the nearest edge of a trail would be within 25 feet of the centerline of the nearest railroad track, new bridges could be built, or the trail could be routed to streets for a short section.
The plan acknowledged the possibility of a commuter rail line being added along the route in the future — another project in the Connecting the Corridor plan — but noted that would not affect the feasibility of a trail along the route as well.
From here, a group led by The Corridor will spend at least the next year putting together an Equitable Development Plan based on input from community members.
“The community has to drive the process. What does the community want? How many ramps? What should these spaces look like? What should it have access to?” Karidis said, noting the process will address concerns people might have, including “‘I need a job. I don’t need a trail.’ Can the trail help to promote economic development in the area? We believe that it can.”
There’s also the matter of attaining an easement for the trail along the rail line, which Watco bought last fall. Karidis said the RTC has begun preliminary conversations with the company, but the process of obtaining an easement is a lot of work.
Then funds would have to be raised. The study noted the group could tap into an array of public grants from various local and national entities, including the Wisconsin and U.S. departments of transportation.
“This is a long-term process. We’re talking a major infrastructure project that’s going to cost millions of dollars. And it has to be driven by the community,” Karidis said.