triveraguy: Question re: The changing color lights under the Marquette interchange. Do they automatically change color or does someone manually change?
about 7 days ago
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The Marquette Interchange appears entirely open. |
 | By Bobby Tanzilo   Managing Editor E-mail author | Author bio More articles by Bobby Tanzilo |
| Published Aug. 19, 2008 at 7:47 a.m. |
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I suspected it on the drive home yesterday when I got on the freeway on a new ramp. This morning, it was confirmed. The Marquette Interchange is open! Or at least it appears to be.
After work yesterday, I was Downtown and I entered the freeway on North 11th Street. It felt weird but the ramp was wide and almost shiny with newness.
This morning when I got onto 794 East, there were cars entering on my right from the high rise bridge. That's something that hasn't happened in years.
Last night all of 794 was closed from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m. today for installation of signs, staining of concrete and what the project Web site calls, "final pavement marking."
Final pavement marking sure sounds like "finished!" to me.
However, according to Mchange.org, it appears that the spurs from 794 to I-43 north and south, and a few other ramps, aren't scheduled to reopen until 4 p.m. today.
Now, brace yourself for the renovation of I-94 from Milwaukee south to the state line and for the rebuilding of the Zoo Interchange. Ay carumba!
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10 comments about this article. Post a comment / write a review. |
Recent Talkbacks ...
Posted by InTheView on Aug. 20, 2008 at 9:40 a.m. (report)
MKELover> I agree with you about light rail, but Milwaukee's Metro population is closer 2 million than being just above 1 million. That makes no matter, because it's still not enough to substantiate or neccessitate an entire rail system, especially when you have multiple suburban communities who are anti-mass transit and wish to keep "diversity" out of their neighborhoods. The Marquette is the most vital crossing in the state's economy and I have to applaud the powers that be in Madison for recognizing this, putting down any MKE vs. MAD grudges they may have, and allocating the neccessary funds for the project. This is the first time in many decades we've seen WisDOT actually fighting for upgrading something in Milwaukee County. But honestly, light rail is something we will need in the long run, but not right now. We should put more funding in our localized bus system, which has benifited the city in many more ways that our failed light rail lines had in the past. We should find more energy efficient and ecofriendly ways to enhance our current bus system, and fight to have them extended into Waukesha, Racine and Ozaukee counties. We should focus on fixing the systems we have before we create a light rail line that more than likely will fail worse than our bus lines are currently failing.
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Posted by Jeff on Aug. 19, 2008 at 2:23 p.m. (report)
soboMP3, I was told these speeds were set by WisDOT. As of this morning, all the east-west lanes on 794 are open, so there's no real construction going on. Who knows, maybe they'll raise the speed once drivers are used to the new configuration. Until then, speeders beware!
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Posted by alba on Aug. 19, 2008 at 11:05 a.m. (report)
The Marquette project was barely a headache for me, and I drive through it every weekday. Great work all around! There are still a few areas that need to be studied however. The traffic flows nicely from the Marquette north to North Ave, but the merging traffic from North Ave onramp makes things crawl. It would be nice to see that fourth lane extended past Locust Street, where the university traffic ends. The zoo interchange is a terrible traffic mess every single work day. I hope they do some careful planning to reroute traffic smoothly during the construction there.
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Posted by done but not improved on Aug. 19, 2008 at 10:37 a.m. (report)
Hats off to the construction staff. However, the design itself and traffic control during the project leaves a lot to be desired.
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Posted by mkelover on Aug. 19, 2008 at 10:36 a.m. (report)
Ah yes, rail rail and more rail. How dare we repair and improve the lynchpin of our state's economy which allows commerce of all kinds, which benefits all people, to flow through our region. It makes me laugh at the posters who merely cry that "we need rail" and simply leave it at that. Our city's population isn't even 700,000 and our Metro Milwaukee population is just barely over 1 million. Compare that to Chicago which has 3 million in the city alone and over nearly 10 million in the Chicagoland area. Chicago has a tremendous need for rail. Milwaukee does not right now. Rail needs to augment or replace existing roads/freeways that are well over capacity and would markedly decrease commute time. Until we start seeing commute times like those in Chicago, rail (of any kind) will likely not happen. Trying to blame the evil republican Scott Walker does nothing...we have nearly 100 million sitting in a federal fund waiting to be used for rail or some other new initiative...don't you think the democrats like Barrett, Doyle, Moore, etc would be able to devise a great rail plan that would work that most would support? And just because another city has rail doesn't mean that we need to have it, that's a non-starter as an argument.
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