Gov. Scott Walker and other officials participated in a celebratory event Tuesday at O’Donnell Park in downtown Milwaukee, which included a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Hoan Bridge reconstruction project and a groundbreaking ceremony for the start of the Lakefront Gateway Project.
See coverage of the event from WISN-TV Channel 12, a media partner of BizTimes Milwaukee.
A 2010 inspection of the Hoan Bridge in Milwaukee recommended a re-decking (to replace the concrete road surface) and repairs to the steel, especially in joints where water has seeped in and done some damage. The $226 million project for that work began last year.
The Lakefront Gateway Project was planned to begin when the Hoan Bridge project was complete. The state is providing $16 million for the $34 million Lakefront Gateway Project. The state will move two ramps in the Lake Interchange, which connects the Hoan Bridge and north-south I-794 to the east-west section of I-794. The relocation of those ramps will open up a potential development site southwest of Clybourn Street and Lincoln Memorial Drive.
That is the site where the city of Milwaukee and Johnson Controls are splitting the cost of a $500,000 development feasibility study. Johnson Controls is considering a major office building development on the site.
The Lakefront Gateway Project will also include numerous city street improvements, including the extension of Lincoln Memorial Drive south to Chicago Street in the Historic Third Ward, and the conversion of Clybourn Street into a boulevard.
