Removing I-794 is Climate Action

Catastrophic flooding, record-setting air pollution from climate-driven wildfires, unprecedented early-season severe storms – the list goes on. In just the past year, it has become crystal clear that Wisconsin will not be spared from the impacts of climate change driven by the burning of fossil fuels. Immediate change is needed. As the Trump administration defunds climate research and green infrastructure projects, all while seeking to boost oil and gas production, it’s imperative that we act at the local level to shift towards a green, sustainable future.

In June 2023, Mayor Cavalier Johnson approved the Milwaukee Climate & Equity Plan, a 128-page document outlining 10 Big Ideas that our city government will seek to carry out in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the effects of climate change with a focus on racial and economic equity.

Three years later, on July 8th, 2026, Mayor Johnson announced his support for the “Freeway Improvement” alternative, one of three proposed by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation in the I-794 Lake Interchange Study. This alternative would reconstruct the elevated freeway segments of I-794 between the Milwaukee River and Hoan Bridge, consolidating exit ramps and slightly narrowing the footprint compared to the existing design. Essentially, the Mayor voiced his support for spending nearly one billion dollars (per WisDOT estimates) for a project that would maintain our car-centric and climate-vulnerable built environment and fail to address any of the goals

in the Climate & Equity Plan in a meaningful way.

If Milwaukee wants to truly commit to meeting the goals in the Climate & Equity Plan, there is only one option under consideration in the I-794 study that does so: Freeway Removal.

Replacing the elevated freeway with an at-grade boulevard sets the stage for fulfilling several goals. By building dense housing in an area already well-served by public transit, we’ll be encouraging ridership and building inertia to improve and expand our transit systems (C&E Ch. 5-1). Bringing thousands of new residents within close proximity to jobs and destinations downtown will also encourage trips to be made by transit, walking, and biking (C&E Ch. 5-2), rather than driving – as would be likely if those residents lived further away from downtown. Data from a City of Milwaukee report shows that over 80% of trips that are 1-2 miles in length are taken by car in Milwaukee, while that number falls to under 50% for trips under 1 mile (State of mobility in Milwaukee, p. 20). Even as efforts to encourage active transportation are ongoing, primarily by creating safe multimodal infrastructure, it’s clear that one of the biggest steps we can take to reduce trips taken by car is bringing people’s homes and destinations closer together.

“Integrated spatial planning to achieve compact and resource-efficient urban growth through co-location of higher residential and job densities, mixed land use, and transit-oriented development could reduce urban energy use between 23% and 26% by 2050 compared to the business-as-usual scenario.” - International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report, 2022

We all have places to be: work, school, home, social events, medical appointments, etc. Interstate 794 currently provides a fast way for some of us to make those trips, but that comes at a high cost. The direct health impacts of automotive pollution, devastating climate disasters (the August 2025 flooding alone caused over $240 million in damage and claimed several lives), and the lost opportunity to provide thousands of Milwaukeeans with housing in proximity to their jobs and destinations.

Urban freeways are fundamentally incompatible with a sustainable future. As we move forward, it’s critical that we accurately weigh these impacts against the potential benefits. This decision about our transportation infrastructure today will impact the climate resiliency of the Milwaukee region for generations. Freeway removal isn’t just another option – it’s the option if we’re truly going to rethink the future of our city.

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Photo Credits: Before Photo by Xu Zhang; After Rendering by Xu Zhang

Benefits Across Milwaukee

• Shifting towards a more multi-modal transportation system will reduce air pollution impacts across the region

• Revenue from development in the I-794 corridor could be directed towards green infrastructure projects to reduce the impacts of flooding across the region, with an emphasis on underserved communities at high-risk of flooding

• Strengthening our busiest transit corridors with better service and additional commuter routes can improve transportation service county- and region-wide, reducing the carbon impact of travel.