HUMBOLDT BRIDGE BIDS BEAT BUDGET

#10 BUS ROUTE RE-ROUTED TO HOLTON DURING 2-YEAR CONSTRUCTION

Special to the readers of Milwaukeeworld

By Michael Horne

and the Milwaukee World Hound Dog Team

Bids were read this morning for the construction of two new bridges at N. Humboldt Av. across the Milwaukee River and N. Commerce Street.
Lunda Construction Company of Black River Falls, Wisconsin, submitted the apparent low bid of $6,278,616 for the state project. Zenith Tech, Inc. of Waukesha submitted a $7,009,119 bid for the project, followed by Edward Kraemer & Sons of Plain, Wisconsin. If you add another 15% for the city's engineering costs, as would be standard, it is within the $9 million or so estimate for the job. The bud could be let within a few business days, according to Craig Liberto of the City of Milwaukee Department of Public Works.
Eligible bidders were Kraemer, Lunda, Michels, Radtke and Zenith Tech.
The project, which was discussed here in May, will commence by the end of the year. The City of Milwaukee has already undertaken various relocations of utilities to accommodate the project, which should take about two years.

THERE GOES THE BUS!
During the two year construction project the #10 bus [Humboldt - Wisconsin] will be detoured. Northbound buses will diverge from their route at E. Pleasant St., will cross the Holton Viaduct, and then head back to Humboldt via E. North Avenue, according to David Ziarek, the Coordinator of Street Supervision for the Milwaukee County Transit System.
This is the same, rather useless, detour the bus took for a year long period when sewer construction closed the Humboldt - Kane - Water Street intersection.
Ziarek said he had to reject an option of diverting the bus at Brady Street, sending it north on N. Cambridge St., and thence to North Ave. where it could resume its route. Such a configuration would require the elimination of parking at Peter Sciortino's Bakery, at the corner of Brady and Humboldt, and elsewhere he said. [The route would also have almost exactly duplicated a Milwaukee streetcar route from the early 20th century until the system's demise, according to Joe Klein, who has been interning in the office of Ald. Nik Kovac. See Map of 1900 Milwaukee Trolley Routes. --Ed.]
A better detour, and one not considered by MCTS, would be to have northbound buses detour Humboldt by heading east at E. Kane Place -- just south of the bridges -- continuing briefly on N. Warren Ave. and E. Boylston St. and then cruising north on Cambridge. This would eliminate only one stop on the route, and would avoid the Brady Street congestion - parking issues. It would also, not incidentally, keep the bus on the same side of the river as its passengers at that latitude!
Ziarek of MCTS said such a route might raise the objections of neighbors who don't want "to hear their china cabinets shaking and dishes rattling" as his buses go rumbling down the quaint byways of the East Village. That's easy to say from behind a desk, and there is no indication the neighborhood was informed of this decision, or of any alternative to the bureaucratically inspired detour route, duplicating existing bus routes for its entirety.
Sara Horn, aide to Kovac, said she takes the #10 to work every day, and was not too pleased with the Holton detour when it was imposed upon riders in 2005-2006. She said the matter of the bus re-routing had not come up at a neighborhood hearing on the bridge construction and traffic concerns on August 5th. But you can go ahead and complain about it here in my comment section, if you would like. Let's hope Ald. Kovac can flex some muscle regarding the route of this important transportation artery. Let My People Ride!
-- Michael Horne