Coveting an interchange, will a local business pony up the cash?

ABOVE: In a photo taken while Northwestern Mutual's "phase 2" was still under construction (see girders at upper right), the Oak Creek "commitment" to connecting 27th street to a possible Drexel interchange is demonstrated. The road has since been re-paved --- but remains a narrow, near-shoulderless barrier.

Steve Jagler, executive editor of BizTimes in Milwaukee, made some spring predictions via the OnMilwaukee.com site.

While we're on the south side of the county, Oak Creek and Franklin have been unable to come up with the matching local funds that the Wisconsin Department of Transportation would require to build a new freeway interchange on Interstate 94 at Drexel Avenue. Later this year, look for Northwestern Mutual Insurance Co. to pony up and cover the heretofore missing dollars. The Quiet Company is hush about its plans, but sources say Northwestern Mutual needs the exit ramp to serve its sprawling campus on South 27th Street. The company also has acquired several parcels of land surrounding the campus, and a freeway exit at Drexel Avenue would add commercial value to the properties.

This is a fairly fascinating notion. Anyone who has traveled Drexel on the Oak Creek side of 27th Street can't help but notice that the road is very consciously "under-engineered." After all --- the "spirit of Franklin-Oak Creek 27th Street cooperation" notwithstanding --- Oak Creek wants traffic to go EAST to their burgeoning commercial strip on Howell. What do they need with 27th Street?

So a fairly superfluousness interchange may be funded because Northwestern Mutual perceives a 45-second time-savings as a possible boon to property it owns around the 27th Street campus --- most significantly, on the Oak Creek side. Rather than take the Rawson exit, which brings traffic right down 27th Street (and through a commercial district that Oak Creek-Franklin profess interest in cooperatively growing), a Drexel interchange offers drivers a choice of turning west on a narrow, uninviting road (the Franklin side), or right on a meticulously maintained, multi-lane asphalt wonder (the Oak Creek side), which has a huge, vacant Delphi plant waiting for commercial development.

It doesn't take much imagination to see, in the lack of regional cooperation at work here, a moat forming around the island city of Franklin.

I've placed this on the agenda for discussion at the next Franklin Economic Development Commission meeting and that of the Trails Committee; we'll see what sense of urgency is created.

Comments

[Pat]

Oak Creek knows what they are doing here. That strip of Drexel between the freeway and 27th street is one of the worst strips of roads in that area. They were basically forced to repave it due to its condition a year or so ago. (It was bad pot holes everywhere to the point where I no longer took that way.) But when they fixed it up they decided not to add shoulders, walkways, or even raise it due to its passing through a low area that constantly floods. They just did a half ass fix. This, of course, for two reasons. One you stated. Why would they want traffic to go west towards Franklin? The other reason being they are hoping for the state and Franklin to pitch in and pay, by means of the interchange project, for that strip of road to be redesign and built. They figure it could be tied into the whole interchange project. "Well you're building an interchange there you can't just have in exit onto a crappy road." "OK then well fix it to Drexel." Im beginning to think that Oak Creek has seen so much success on their Howell Ave. in the last 5-10 years that they no longer care about sharing that with Franklin in the 27th street planning and rather want it all for themselves. Face it Franklin is probably to close to the S.76th st. shopping district in Greendale to ever get stores like Best Buy. They would locate in places they could better serve cities like South Milwaukee, Cudahy, the south shore area, Oak creek and Franklin. Unfortunatly for Franklin Howell is right in the middle. And I fear that the Drexel interchange, that we might help pay for, will only feed Oak Creek.

[John Michlig]

Can't argue with any of your points, Pat - they all seem completely consistant with reality.

[Scott Thinnes]

I'm not sure on the exact timing, but, Oak Creek has created TID #7 to provide the funding mechanism for their local share of the I94 / Drexel Avenue Interchange. I'm also not sure on where the boundaries fall. It would be interesting to see if it includes Howell Avenue, where TIF Increment (tax revenue) would probably be available much sooner. Or, if it covers 27th Street. Where Oak Creek would then be showing faith in it's upcomming growth. Probably includes areas of both.

I believe, when the minor resurfacing to Drexel West was done the TID may not yet have been fully approved. I'm sure that a more substantial improvement may be made to that stretch of road if and when the interchange becomes a reality. TID #7 will no doubt become the funding source for that work also.

It will be a few years before the additional Drexel West improvements will be needed. The 27th Street improvements from College to Drexel are, I believe, scheduled for 2013. Things are moving very slow right now as the DOT has yet to decide on round-abouts or conventional intersections. And, who knows if, and/or when, the interchange will be finished.

[Scott Thinnes]

Wow, correction already.

I see from a post at Franklin Today that the DOT has dropped round-abouts from consideration on 27th Street.

http://www.myfranklintoday.com/2010/02/roundabouts-dropped-for-27th-street-corridor.html