Opponents of proposed Milwaukee I-94 expansion call for pause after federal investigation

From the Article:

Opponents of a proposed interstate expansion in Milwaukee are arguing those plans should be put on hold because the project is now the focus of a federal civil rights investigation.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation announced plans in 2022 for a $1.2 billion project to expand Interstate 94 on the city's west side from six lanes to eight — four lanes in each direction — on about a 3.5-mile stretch of highway that passes the Brewers' American Family Field.

Opponents of the project believe the expansion would negatively impact people of color, as a majority of Black and Hispanic residents live along the corridor.

Cassie Steiner, the senior campaign coordinator for the Wisconsin chapter of the Sierra Club, is calling on Gov. Tony Evers to halt the project because of the civil rights investigation.

"Highway expansions have caused decades of harm, especially to Black and Brown communities," Steiner said.

Environmental activists have argued that more gas-burning cars on the road will lead to more carbon emissions in the air, contributing to climate change. They believe the expansion will make climate change and air pollution worse in the area. Environmental attorney Dennis Grzezinski said the project is located in a corridor that has a "larger proportion of Black and Hispanic residents than can be found in any other community in the region."

Aside from increasing noise and air pollution as more cars zip down a wider highway, some residents also worry the addition of about 29 acres of asphalt — the equivalent of more than 20 football fields — will increase flows of stormwater into the area.

"Who's it going to impact? Not the folks trying to get to downtown during rush hour from richer, whiter neighborhoods and communities, but the folks who live in and around the center city," Grzezinski said.

Last year, community groups and opponents of the project sent a civil rights complaint to the Federal Highway Administration. The complaint said if the project goes forward, people of color will "bear the brunt of the impacts of highway construction and expansion, while whites, especially white persons living in highly segregated suburbs, will reap most of the benefits."

"This will compound and exacerbate the historical, longstanding disparities and injustices to which these Milwaukee communities have been subjected," the complaint said.