Oak Leaf Trail link to be completed this fall
New section is on former railroad line
Final work has begun on a 3.1mile stretch of the Oak Leaf Trail that will link a popular section of the trail along the lakefront and Milwaukee River to a northern section connecting Ozaukee County’s Interurban Trail.
When the construction work on the $3.1 million project is completed this fall, trail users can bicycle or walk over paved trail from Lakeshore State Park downtown to southern Sheboygan County.
The Interurban Trail runs through Ozaukee County and a portion of Sheboygan County.
The new, 10-foot-wide section in Milwaukee and Glendale is on a former Union Pacific railroad line running from E. Hampton Ave. to just south of W. Mill Road.
Two former rail bridges will take users over I-43 and the Milwaukee River. There are eight bridges in total along the three miles of new trail.
Milwaukee County officials had hoped the trail would be completed last year.
Negotiations to buy the land and other planning took longer than expected, according to Jim Keegan, chief of planning and development for Milwaukee County Parks Department.
Also, for years Union Pacific was reluctant to formally identify the corridor as an abandoned rail line.
The missing link in the Oak Leaf Trail system had been planned for years. The attraction to the county and bike advocates is providing contiguous trails in the most congested area of Wisconsin.
County officials have estimated that the trail will be used by about 500,000 people annually.
“It gives people a greater opportunity for people around the county to commute to work and go difference places,” Keegan said.
Dave Schlabowske, deputy director of the Wisconsin Bike Fed, a bicycle advocacy group, said the section of the trail “has been our No. 1 asked question for the last five years.”
Traveling north, the Oak Leaf currently ends abruptly, just south of E. Hampton Ave. Some bikers ride through Lincoln Park and streets to near Mill Road.
“But when you get dumped on to a road, it’s not an experience that a lot of people are looking for,” Schlabowske said. “You can tell them it’s safe, but some riders, they don’t feel comfortable on roads.
“This is closing a gap and creating more of a network.”
The construction involves Union Pacific removing old rail and railroad ties and some tree removal. Construction of the new trail, including paving, starts in mid-June, Keegan said.
He said fencing to protect public safety will be used on bridges over I-43 and the Milwaukee River and at some other locations.
The biggest expense is $1.9 million for acquisition of the land from the railroad. Earlier estimates had put the cost of the project at up to $5.3 million.
Funding for the work includes money from Milwaukee County and the state Department of Natural Resources. The biggest share of funding comers from the U.S. Department of Transportation for programs that help to ease congestion of roadways and expand the use of trails.
The county is refurbishing other trails this summer.
It is spending $1.3 million for planning, design and reconstruction of the Oak Leaf Trail in Sheridan and Grant parks in Cudahy and South Milwaukee.
The segments in Sheridan Park between Lunham and Pulaski avenues and in Grant Park between College Ave. and just north of the Grant Park golf course are the oldest portions of the trail and in the poorest condition.
Also, a new 10-foot-wide bike-pedestrian trail is being built from Mayfair Road to Swan Blvd. in Wauwatosa. The trail is part of a larger series of upgrades on the Menomonee River Parkway between Congress and Church streets.