I-94 from Milwaukee to Illinois may get wider

MILWAUKEE -- A plan to widen the interstate from Milwaukee to Illinois may receive final approval soon after a new report says the project would comply with federal environmental laws.

The $1.9 billion reconstruction plan may receive the go-ahead from the Federal Highway Administration soon after the 30-day comment period.

The plan would widen 35 miles of Interstate 94 from Milwaukee to the Illinois border by a lane in each direction and would include a new interchange in Oak Creek.

Construction would begin in 2009 in the Mitchell Interchange and then shift to the main traffic lanes starting in Kenosha County. The work would be completed in 2016.

However, a coalition of groups opposed to the project may file a federal lawsuit after submitting a 34-page comment that outlined potential violations of federal environmental and civil rights laws if the project moves forward as planned.

The group says the expansion would increase pollution and harm children in the area and violate civil rights by using money in road construction and depriving minorities and low-income residents of public transportation options.

"One can't look at this without finding a pattern of discrimination against disfavored groups and communities in our society," said Dennis Grzezinski, an attorney working with the ACLU.

The Milwaukee Common Council also has objected to the plan to add one lane in each direction from the Mitchell Interchange through Kenosha County.

Much of the roadway is more than 50 years old and in need of reconstruction.

According to the plans provided by the Wisconsin's Department of Transportation, rebuilding the roadway would cost $1.7 billion while adding the lanes would cost only $200 million more.

DOT officials say traffic will increase 36 percent on the stretch of highway from 2001 to 2035.

Wisconsin State Rep. Jeff Stone, a Greendale Republican, has been a strong supporter of the expansion.

"We're going to have traffic at a standstill if you don't add capacity," he said. "You'll literally bring the economy of the region to a standstill, if that's the only route into Chicago and the Milwaukee metro area and farther north."

Expansion opponents have argued that mass transit options would be a better alternative.