Patrick has some exclusive video from a Citizens for Responsible Government press conference announcing support for the 27th Street businesses opposed to the closing of a portion of the I-43/894 ramp movements at 27th Street. Specifically, the DOT wants to shut off access to 27th Street from northbound I-94 (coming from the south) and from 27th Street to southbound I-94, prefering to shove all that traffic onto Layton Avenue. There are two schools on 20th Street (between 27th and I-94) within a half-mile of Layton, as well as a senior citizen complex on Layton between 20th and 27th.
The stated excuse is that traffic would have to cross too many lanes of traffic to get from the north-94-to-894 ramp to the 27th Street exit. While that is true right now (there is roughly 0.36 miles between the merge point of traffic coming from the north and south and the 27th Street exit, and essentially the same distance between the merge point of traffic coming from 27th and the split between northbound and southbound traffic)…
Click for a full-sized pic (1048×892 pixels, 235KB); from Google Earth
…that is not true under the prefered alternative:
Click for a full-sized pic (1211×768 pixels, 295KB); from WisDOT’s Map Safety and Design with Capacity – North Leg update
Note that the southbound 43/94 traffic that wants to exit onto 27th Street would get off the freeway before 20th Street, while traffic from 27th Street that wants to get onto northbound 43/94 will not merge with the “mainline” traffic at all and not merge with traffic committed to going north until 20th.
“So far, so what?”, you are probably saying. While the WisDOT has attempted to scrub any reference to direct access to 27th Street from the south from its project website, they forgot to “fix” the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, specifically Exhibit 2-7 focused on Layton Avenue (archived here):
Click for a full-sized pic (1004×776 pixels, 175KB); from the Draft Environmental Impact Statement linked above
Do note the small ramps extending from the main north-to-west ramp and the southern-most ramp from eastbound in the first two alternatives. Those were the planned movements between 27th Street and I-94 toward the south, movements that would not have encountered the “mainline” I-43/I-894 at all. While there was a major change between the prefered alternative in the DEIS (which is missing those movements) to the current prefered alternative in that the traffic moving from eastbound 43/894 and 27th Street to northbound 43/94 goes under rather than over the “mainline” I-94, there is no logical impediment other than cost that would cause those movements to be eliminated. Given the movements west of the split from southbound 43/94 to 27th Street and especially the merge between the 27th Street on-ramp and northbound 43/94, there does not even appear to be any less land used by the movements’ elimination.
If the businesses of 27th Street are willing to pay for the additional cost of keeping the movements between 27th and I-94 toward the south, there is absolutely no logical explanation to eliminate said movements.
