Here’s how the West Roosevelt Sewer Project will affect residents | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Meredith Melland
October 17, 2023
The West Roosevelt Sewer Improvement Project will change how a section of West Roosevelt Drive operates during construction stages in 2024, affecting the people who travel and live there.
As the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District project develops, residents of Sherman Park, Sunset Heights, Grasslyn Manor and other communities around Roosevelt Drive say they want to be kept informed.
“MMSD has done this for a long time, these bigger projects, and they have very seasoned people on board to help, but what we want to make sure of is there’s an open line of communication,” said Jamshid “Jim” Zonoozi, a resident.
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In August, MMSD hosted an evening open house at Sherman Perk Coffee Shop on Roosevelt Drive and answered questions from community members that ranged from snow plowing and garbage pickup to basement backups and rats.
Services like street plowing and garbage pickup are the city’s responsibility, but the project’s team will follow up on some of the concerns raised with the city to make sure they are coordinating, said Keith Kalinger, senior project manager for MMSD.
He added that he does not anticipate much work will be done on the project during the middle of winter.
Construction on West Roosevelt Drive will take up part of the roadway and remove street parking.
“A lot of people in our neighborhood, they don’t either have enough garage space or they park on the street,” Zonoozi said.
He leads the Norwood Neighborhood Group from North 54th to North 60th streets and West Roosevelt Drive to West Keefe Avenue.
Since vehicles will be traveling in the bike and curb lane, there will not be room for emergency vehicles to go around traffic.
“Probably the biggest impact it’s going to have on the broader neighborhood is this is a major runway to the St. Joe’s emergency room,” said Bob Olin, owner of Sherman Perk and neighborhood resident.
MMSD representatives said they have contacted city hospitals, including Ascension SE Wisconsin Hospital – St. Joseph Campus, and schools and churches in the area about the project’s traffic reroutes.
Zonoozi’s Norwood Neighborhood Group was working with District 10 Ald. Michael Murphy on a plan to add bump-outs, which extend the curb into the roadway to calm traffic and reduce baselining, on part of Roosevelt Drive.
“We had already started going over the plans with the engineer, and we even had a meeting to talk about what Roosevelt would look like, and then we found out that this was happening and then our project had to be put on hold,” Zonoozi said.
Pausing the bump-out plan until at least 2025 and reserving American Rescue Plan Act funding for it will be an extra challenge because the Norwood community is being redistricted next year into District 7, currently represented by Ald. Khalif Rainey.
Karen Nagle, a resident who leads the Tri-Block Neighborhood Association from West Burleigh to West Center streets and North 53rd to North 56th streets, initially feared the sewer work would impact Roosevelt’s tree canopy and brought the concern to other residents.
“But fortunately, they said no, it wasn’t going to affect the trees,” she said.
Only one tree is planned to be removed because most of the work will be in the roadway and not in the boulevard/median, according to MMSD.
Residents can use the “Contact Us” form on MMSD’s website or project page to contact the West Roosevelt project team.
The sewer work should not cause basement flooding, according to MMSD.
If you have a basement backup, contact Milwaukee’s Department of Public Works using 414-286-CITY (2489) and then MMSD with this wet basement form.
Robert Seleen, the flood hazard mitigation manager for the City of Milwaukee, said the city will send a sewer investigator to determine the cause of flooding.
In the event that rats get into residences, which Seleen said he has not seen in an active sewer project, Milwaukee’s Department of Neighborhood Services can provide resources or potentially bait them.
Sign up to get email updates on MMSD’s project website here.
Meredith Melland is the neighborhoods reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.