Milwaukee Zoo Interchange

The Zoo Interchange, named for its adjacent location to the Milwaukee County Zoo, serves as a major economic link between the cities of Milwaukee, Madison and Fox Valley with more than 300,000 vehicles passing through it daily.

The redesign represents the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s (WisDOT) largest and most challenging infrastructure project to date. It includes:

• 7 freeway miles
• 4 miles of local arterial roads
• 7 service interchanges
• 60 bridges
• 6 railroad structures
• 100+ retaining walls
• Four-level core interchange
• 70+ traffic signal upgrades
• Millions of cubic yards of earthwork

As part of the Forward 45 joint venture team, HNTB supported WisDOT with roadway construction staging, structural design, geotechnical analysis, traffic signal and intelligent transportation systems design, utility coordination, traffic analysis and modeling, landscape design and construction inspection.

In addition to these services, HNTB provided a transportation management planning team to assist WisDOT with traffic operations, incident management and public involvement throughout the life of the Zoo Interchange Program construction.

Sophisticated technology maintains accessibility

To maintain accessibility for freeway travelers and the nearby neighborhoods and businesses throughout construction, HNTB developed an innovative integrated corridor system with adaptive traffic signals. The system represented the nation’s largest single deployment of adaptive traffic signals and WisDOT’s first use of the sophisticated technology.