Wisconsin Highway 794

State Trunk Highway 794 (often called Highway 794, STH 794, WIS 794 or Lake Parkway) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It runs north–south in Milwaukee County from downtown Milwaukee to its southern suburbs. WIS 794 is the highest numbered Wisconsin state highway in the state trunk highway system.

WIS 794 is one of only two numbered state trunk highways, along with WIS 39, that share a number designation with an Interstate or Federal/US highway within the state's borders. Wisconsin Department of Transportation policy prohibited dual designations within the state trunk highway system, prior to the commissioning of I-39.

The Lake Parkway

The Lake Parkway was originally planned to be a lakeside freeway, extending from just north of downtown Milwaukee all the way south to the Illinois state line. Due to protests over construction, it was never completed. Before the project was shelved, a portion of the planned roadway was built immediately south of downtown Milwaukee. A bridge spanning the mouth of the Milwaukee River connecting downtown and Bay View, the Hoan Bridge was constructed. However, connections to this bridge were left unfinished for many years, and locally it was known as the 'Bridge to Nowhere'. The 1980 movie The Blues Brothers features a scene where their car jumps the incomplete highway.

In the 1990s, construction on what would become the Parkway began along the Union Pacific / former Chicago and North Western Transportation Company right of way. According to Bessert, the whole project took approximately eight years. The Parkway opened in October 1999.

The "freeway" section of WIS 794 - the John R. Plewa Memorial Lake Parkway, as it is formally known - was finally "completed" to the corner of East Edgerton Avenue and South Pennsylvania Avenue, after six years of terminating at the Layton Avenue off-ramp. Officially, there are four "exits" on the Parkway:

• Layton Avenue (southbound off, northbound on)
• Howard Avenue
• Oklahoma Avenue
• Carferry Drive (access to the dock for the Lake Express ferry to Muskegon, Michigan; northbound continues on to I-794)

The Oklahoma Avenue exit, however, requires a traffic light for southbound vehicles to enter. The stoplight is a major reason why the Parkway is not considered an Interstate highway for its entire length.

A newly constructed half-mile (800 meter) section of Howard Avenue between WIS 794 and WIS 32 is part of the state trunkline system and officially labeled a spur of WIS 794.^[2][3] Along with WIS 341, this spur is one of two unsigned state routes in the greater Milwaukee area.

WIS 794 continues down South Pennsylvania Avenue, running just east of General Mitchell International Airport south to its terminus at College Avenue.

Interchanges

References