City plans to revamp sidewalks, curbs, medians on Fond du Lac Avenue to make street safer for pedestrians

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Following multiple high-profile fatal crashes and increased concerns about reckless driving, Milwaukee’s Department of Public Works hopes a construction project will make a main north side artery safer for pedestrians.

The department plans to revamp the sidewalks and medians around a busy three-block stretch of West Fond du Lac Avenue, from North 36th to North 38th streets, to better control traffic and make pedestrians more visible to drivers.

The plan — set to begin in mid-April and run through June 28 — comes as year-old Sherman Phoenix, a collection of small businesses at 3536 W. Fond du Lac Ave., draws an increasing number of customers to a complex and unsafe intersection, said Chad Chrisbaum, the DPW’s transportation infrastructure section engineer in charge.

"We have a huge generator of pedestrian traffic that moved to the neighborhood, significant investment being made," Chrisbaum said at a open house this week at Sherman Phoenix. "It just made good sense to implement something like this."

Proposed changes to West Fond du Lac Avenue at North 36th Street include extending medians to cut down on the number of risky turns drivers can make, and creating ramped curbs that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The plan also follows the city’s commitment to Complete Streets, a policy Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett signed into law in 2018 that says new construction must make roads safer for those who bike and walk.

Some of those key changes include curb extensions — which jut out into an intersection and make crosswalk distances shorter — and pedestrian refuge islands, or slabs of raised concrete in the middle of intersections.

As Fond du Lac Avenue runs diagonally through the north side’s grid system streets, much of the new design focuses on creating right angles and more visibility, officials said.

Proposed changes to West Fond du Lac Avenue at North 37th Street include extending medians to cut down on the number of risky turns drivers can make, and creating ramped curbs that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

A pedestrian stepping out into many of the current crosswalks at 36th, 37th and 38th streets often encounters a long, sideways path across a busy, four-lane street with few markers for drivers who don’t have stoplights to slow them down, said Chrisbaum.

The following are some of the features the department plans for the three intersections:

Create extensions where the curb extends to the edge of the parking lane. This way, Chrisbaum said, a driver is more likely to see a pedestrian standing on the curb. Plus, the curb creates a barrier for drivers who try to pass on the right. They cannot sail down the street unimpeded.
Paint thick stripes on the crosswalks so drivers can more easily notice them.
Extend existing medians far into intersections to cut down on the number of risky turns drivers make.
Since side streets currently approach Fond du Lac Avenue at an angle, morph their curbs so that drivers approach it straight-on, at a 90-degree angle, and can more easily see oncoming cars.
Banish all diagonal crosswalks, creating only paths that lead straight across an intersection, with a chance for pedestrians to stop halfway at the median.
Make everything compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. That means curbs gently slope to the road — allowing the crosswalks to be wheelchair accessible — and each curb has a rectangle of raised, yellow dots so visually impaired people can detect the edge.

A close-up view of a planned curb for West Fond du Lac Avenue at North 38th Street. The curb will extend to the edge of the parking lane so that a driver is more likely to see a pedestrian waiting to cross the street. The curb also creates a barrier for drivers who try to pass on the right.

The current medians in the crosswalks do not have ramps. So a wheelchair user would have to sit in the middle of the road, unprotected, if he or she made it halfway across the intersection and had to wait for cars to pass, Chrisbaum said.

The project is expected to cost $750,000, according to Chrisbaum. While construction is set to begin mid-April, it’s dependent on the weather.

One lane will close at a time during construction. So if one northbound lane is closed, there will be one northbound lane open as well as two southbound lanes. Those heading up construction said they’ve talked to area businesses and will work to maintain access to parking lots and sidewalks throughout the process.

Proposed changes to West North Fond du Lac Avenue at North 38th Street include extending the medians and bumping the curbs out into the parking lane, as well as painting thick stripes on the road to denote the crosswalk.

The department does not have any immediate plans to build this infrastructure elsewhere along Fond du Lac Avenue, Chrisbaum said, but by law they’ll use the Complete Streets mindset to improve pedestrian safety on future road projects.

New infrastructure is only part of the solution to reckless driving and pedestrian safety, Chrisbaum said. Drivers must be educated on the rules of the road and police must enforce the rules, he said.

“It’s important to stress that design is not the silver bullet,” he said.

Contact Sophie Carson at (414) 223-5512 or scarson@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @SCarson_News.