Study Purpose

The purpose of the study was to prepare a plan and program for rebuilding southeastern Wisconsin's freeway system in the 21st century. The study attempted to develop a broad understanding of freeway system needs and, based on that understanding, build a regional consensus as to how to best approach the inevitable reconstruction of the most heavily used portion of our regional transportation system. The present regional freeway system, which totals 270 miles, was built in stages beginning in 1953.

The principal reason for the conduct of the study was that much of the freeway system is approaching the end of its economic and functional life, and the reconstruction of the freeway system will be required over the next 30 years. The freeway system is of critical importance to daily travel within southeastern Wisconsin, as approximately one-third of all travel within the Region on an average weekday is made on the freeway system. The deficiencies of the freeway system are widely acknowledged, including traffic accidents and safety, increasing traffic congestion, and the physical geometric design deficiencies of the freeway system, including lane drops at interchanges, left-hand entrance and exit ramps, inadequate merging and diverging lane lengths, and inadequate shoulders and lateral clearance.

Upon its reconstruction, the freeway system may be expected to serve the Region and the State for 50 years. The costs and benefits of addressing the freeway system's deficiencies deserve careful consideration before system reconstruction. The most cost-effective time to correct deficiencies will be during the reconstruction of the system. Freeway system reconstruction may be expected to entail substantial public resources; however, retrofitting the freeway system ten-to-twenty years after reconstruction to address these deficiencies would again require substantial public investment.