Wilson Drive Street Reconstruction Project Planning

Please see our project page for information about Wilson Drive construction, schedules and traffic staging.

The final concept design, approved by the Village Board on November 13, 2017, includes:

  • Fully reconstructed road surface with a single driving lane in each direction
  • Enhanced pedestrian crossings at Olive Street, Ardmore Avenue, Congress Street, Kensington Boulevard and Glendale Avenue
  • Bike lanes
  • Bus pullouts
  • Enhanced Oak Leaf Trail/Estabrook Park connections at Olive Street and Kensington Boulevard
  • Enhanced stormwater features including biofiltration basins along the west curb line and a biofiltration median from Olive Street to Alpine Avenue
  • Additional trees and landscaping on west side of Wilson Drive
  • New street lighting

The estimated cost of the approved design concept was $2,971,535.80. The project will be funded through a number of sources including general obligation borrowing, sewer utility revenue, MMSD Green Solutions grant funding and WisDOT Local Road Improvement Funding.

Bioswale example

Bio-median w-native seed or sod (5)
plan overview sheet
Virtual Drive-Through of North Wilson Drive

Video

Experience the proposed Wilson Drive corridor reconstruction!

Watch the video for a virtual drive through.

September 14 Open House Materials

Materials are also available for viewing at the Shorewood Public Library. Comments and feedback are always welcome and may be emailed to the Wilson Drive Project.

Wilson Drive Open House Postcard front
gateway photo

Wilson Drive Corridor Transit, Landscape & Stormwater Enhancements

At its August 14 meeting, the Public Works Committee reviewed scenarios and options for enhancements to the roadway corridor.

Village Board Moves Forward with Hybrid/Greenway Road Design

On July 10th the Village Board unanimously voted to memorialize their commitment to conserving the west side of Wilson Drive, eliminating options for future commercial or residential development. And after nearly four hours of public input and discussion, they voted to instruct the engineers to further designs on the hybrid/greenway alternative that shows a 41-foot road width with boulevards on each end. The engineers shall further review parking needs surrounding the businesses; evaluate adding southbound bus pullouts; further evaluate large emergency vehicle access; and, incorporate pedestrian islands at each intersection. Once those are complete, a second Public Information Meeting will be scheduled in September to reveal 60% plans.

Road Section Hybrid Greenway Alternative 07-10-2017

June 29, 2017 Public Information Meeting

Thursday June 29, 2017, GRAEF engineering firm presented information on road design best practices, a traffic study they conducted, and two alternatives that address the Wilson Drive Task Force concerns, interests and priorities. Each alternative meets road, bike, and pedestrian safety best practices and addresses the task force priorities.

Public Comments Received after June 29, 2017 Public Meeting

Many thanks to all who submitted comments after the public meeting on June 29th, 2017. All comments were provided to the Village Board July 7th and are available in the Public Information Meeting Comments (PDF).

Traffic Video Link from Existing Traffic Counts, April 2017: View in Media Player. It takes a moment to load.

  1. Traffic Video (WMP)

The simulation represents operations during the PM peak hour. The 30 southbound lefts at Congress are for the entire peak hour from 5:00 to 6:00 PM for the design year. The simulation moves to Congress at about 45 seconds into the video, during the next minute, there is only 1 car that turns left at Congress, which would appear to be correct as 30 cars per hour would represent 1 car every 2 minutes.

Previous Activity

The Wilson Drive Task Force presented their work to the Village Board on January 3, 2017. Thereafter, the Village Board approved a contract with Graef to provide design and engineering services for the 2018 road reconstruction. An Open House is scheduled for Thursday, June 29, 2017, at 6:00 p.m. at the Village Center. The consultant will give a brief presentation at 6:15 p.m. and will have stations set up for discussion after. We encourage the community to stop by and let us know what you think.

While all of the meeting materials are provided below, some key materials generated over the past year are provided separately for easier access.

Conceptual Road Designs Report, November 2016

The completed consultants report that shows various road design scenarios is now available. The report provides a summary of the work groups concerns, interests and ideas, developed over a year with public input throughout and four road scenarios. It also provides funding opportunities and other helpful information. Take a look at the Wilson Drive Conceptual Planning Report (PDF).

Steering Committee Presentation, January 3, 2017

The Wilson Drive Steering Committee chairs presented a summary of the task force work over the past year. The Village Board will see a presentation by the consultant on the road concept designs on January 17th. See the steering committee's presentation (PDF).

Open House Event a Success, June 2016

The June 15, 2016 Open House Event was a great success!. Thanks to all for coming out and sharing your ideas. Over 140 comment sheets were submitted that night and each work group station was busy answering questions. Public comments were transcribed and may be viewed (PDF).

Background

In June 2015 the Village Board approved the creation of a Wilson Drive Community Task Force based on a framework presented by the Village Board Strategic Initiatives Committee. The task force will be charged with producing a product with specific recommendations that could be examined, tested, and illuminated through alternative design scenarios.

Village Board Presentation July 11, 2016

Trustee Paul Zovic, who chairs the Strategic Initiatives Committee, gave a presentation reviewing the task force framework, status, and summary of public input to date. View /DocumentCenter/View/3647.

Task Force Organization

The Wilson Drive Task Force will consist of one Steering Committee and four Work Groups. The Steering Committee has 13 members, 7 appointed from the community at-large, 4 from Shorewood citizen committees and 2 Village Board members. Each Work Group has 6 members from the community at-large. Read more about the Task Force Organization.

Materials

December 10, 2015 meeting materials (PDF): contains Task Force organization; broad timeline; Wilson Drive Background narrative; 2010 presentation to Village Board.

Wilson Drive Interim Report (PDF): Studio 1032 Architecture, June 7, 2010

Current Street Section (PDF)

January 6, 2016 meeting materials (PDF): Task Force Action plan, draft Roadway AADTC and classification.

Roadway Data and Information (PDF)

January 20, 2016 meeting materials (PDF): contains Strategic Briefings; Action Plan; subcommittee notes, rules and resources

February 10, 2016 meeting materials (PDF): Work Group expectations; draft Communication Plan version 1

February 24, 2016 meeting materials (PDF): Communication Plan version 2

March 9, 2016 meeting materials (PDF): Work Group February 24, 2016 meeting notes

March 23, 2016 meeting materials (PDF): Agenda and March 9, 2016 draft minutes

April 13, 2016 meeting materials. Citizen Engagement Tool discussed; workgroup notes/deliverables draft (PDF)

April 27, 2016 meeting materials (PDF): contains open house suggested format, instructions on how to use bubble diagram, cost of advertising June open house event, stakeholder list and potential guest speaker list.

April 27, 2016 Work Group Notes (PDF): Combined. Each workgroup reviewed a bubble diagram of Wilson Drive, discussing ideas and concerns. Over 75 people participated in the meeting.

May 11, 2016 meeting materials (PDF): contains information on posters and format of the June 15th scheduled open house event. There's also a proposed scope of services for a traffic study that will be discussed.

June 8, 2016 meeting materials (PDF): contains an updated stakeholder communication status, redistributed traffic study scope, public comment summary.

July 27, 2016 meeting materials (PDF): contains a list of concerns and interests from the workgroups, public comments from the open house and all other written public comments and activity summary for the next two months.

August 10, 2016 meeting materials (PDF): contains a priority list of concerns and interests and workgroup note

August 10, 2016 meeting materials (PDF): contains a priority list of concerns and interests and workgroup notes from the July 27 meeting.

September 14, 2016 meeting minutes (PDF)

September 14, 2016 meeting materials (PDF)

November 30, 2016 meeting materials (PDF): contains 4 road scenario concepts presented by the design consultant. audio recording link (PDF)

Environmental Work Group Draft Report (PDF): September 2016

December 14, 2016 meeting materials (PDF): contains design amenities and a memo from the Conservation Committee.

February 15, 2017 meeting notes (PDF): This was the last official meeting of the steering committee. They discussed the consultants draft report.

Task Force Members

Name
 Work Group   
Name
 Work Group
Parks/Rec Chair Ellen Eckman, Steering Committee, Park Rep.
 Parks &  Recreation        
Development Chair Eric Couto, Steering Committee
 Development
Tim Vander Mel, Steering Committee, Parks/Rec Rep.
 Parks & Recreation
 Tr. Mike Maher, Steering Committee (as of May 2016)
 Development
Steve Kavalauskas, Co-Chair Steering Committee
 Parks & Recreation
 Therese Klein, Steering Committee
 Development
Brook Meier Parks & Recreation
 Elizabeth Beeghly Development
Kurt Koenig
 Parks & Recreation
 Sam Essak
 Development
Vicki Herman
 Parks & Recreation
 Stephen McCarthy
 Development
Kathryn Kamm Parks & Recreation
 Joshua Pollack
 Development
Kathy Herbst
 Parks & Recreation
 Adrienne Houck
 Development
Gregg Davis
 Parks & Recreation
 Lois Wesener
 Development
Traffic/Safe Chair Joe Teglia, Steering Committee
 Traffic & Safety
 Mark Keane
 Development
Tom Kuhlmann, Steering Committee, Ped Safe Rep.
 Traffic & Safety
 Environmental Chair Donna Pollack, Steering Committee, Conservation Rep
 Environment
Tr. Davida Amenta, Steering Committee
 Traffic & Safety
 Nathan Hemming, Steering Committee
 Environment
Rob Dilgard
 Traffic & Safety
 Henk Joubert, Co-Chair Steering Committee
 Environment
Alexander Dykhne
 Traffic & Safety
 Peter Sheehan
 Environment
Jennifer Cooney Vulpas
 Traffic & Safety
 John Berges
 Environment
Katherine McDonnel
 Traffic & Safety
 Bonnie Pedraza
 Environment
David Drews
 Traffic & Safety
 Lou Maris
 Environment
Tyler Zwagerman
 Traffic & Safety
 Michael Skauge
 Environment
    Elizabeth Muslin
 Environment

Volunteer Process

Volunteer applications were due October 9, 2015, with postcards mailed to 6,898 households. The Village Board Strategic Initiatives Committee interviewed for the Steering Committee and the Village Board appointed members.

History

Learn the background about Wilson Drive  (PDF)and past discussions over the past 10 years.