New Road Will Reshape Drive to Lakefront

Planning continues on a new road that will connect Highway 100 with Fifth Avenue and reshape the way drivers get to the Oak Creek lakefront.

Plans for the road were first announced last year, but new details emerged earlier this month. Among them: a cul-de-sac will be implemented on Ryan Road just west of the railroad tracks, and two homes near the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Ryan Road will be removed.

The homeowners were agreeable to relocation and negotiations to acquire the homes are ongoing, City Engineer Mike Simmons said.

Because the new road requires a railroad crossing, the cul-de-sac had to be constructed to eliminate the crossing on Ryan Road, Simmons said. The Union Pacific Railroad typically does not allow the addition of more railroad crossings, so the city chose to close one in order to get a new one built.

The cul-de-sac will change how Oak Creek residents get to Bender Park and the lakefront redevelopment area east of Fifth Avenue. Most residents who would have used Ryan Road will likely use the new road, which will be just south of Ryan.

Construction on the new road is expected to begin in 2014.

The road will cross over vacant land in the 9600 block of S. Chicago Road. It's designed to make it easier for cars coming from the freeway, which could get to the lakefront in one shot as opposed to making a left turn on Highway 32 and then a right turn onto Ryan.

It's also seen as a key part of Oak Creek's lakefront redevelopment plans, allowing better access to an area not known for being easy to get to.