The Lakefront Gateway project on downtown Milwaukee’s lakefront received an additional $16.5 million to begin its final phase of infrastructure construction.
The project began in 2010 as part of an effort to better connect downtown to the lakefront, and millions of dollars in public infrastructure improvements have already been completed. With construction of The Couture high rise apartment building now complete, the last significant piece of the Lakefront Gateway project can begin: the intersection of East Michigan Street and Lincoln Memorial Drive.
Milwaukee’s Redevelopment Authority on Thursday approved the additional funding, which brings the project’s total cost to more than $40 million.
The work will include paving and adding sidewalks on Michigan Street, North Cass Street and Lincoln Memorial Drive. The project will also add protected bike lanes and safer pedestrian crossings and continue the Oak Leaf Trail on the west side of Lincoln Memorial to connect better to the Third Ward, plans show.
The plan calls for the intersection of Lincoln Memorial and East Michigan Street to have better crossings for pedestrians, particularly large crowds accessing lakefront festivals and Summerfest grounds, with the addition of a protected median and the removal of the slip lane in the northwest corner of the intersection.
Road work that has been completed on the project includes Clybourn Street, the Lincoln Memorial Drive extension, the new Harbor Drive and work on portions of Michigan Street.
This phase of the project will be funded in part with $6 million coming through the Northwestern Mutual TIF district, which was created in 2013 to help pay for the Northwestern Mutual Tower & Commons at the company’s headquarters and the Lakefront Gateway project.
Bids for the project would go out by late winter or early spring, with the project wrapping up by the end of 2026.
