City holds public design hearing for 2027 Badger, Sixth, Eighth and Rankin street reconstructions

Denise Fenton, chair of the Municipal Services Committee, opened a public hearing Sept. 8 on proposed 2027 reconstruction designs for four Appleton City streets: Badger Avenue (College to Memorial), Sixth Street (Memorial to State), one block of Eighth Street (Pierce to Badger) and Rankin Street (Commercial to Wisconsin).

The city presented the designs as proposals and took public comment; the committee did not vote on the projects at the hearing. City staff said the Badger/Sixth design work was combined because the two corridors were considered together during planning, and noted the projects are scheduled for reconstruction in 2027.

Project engineer Brown described existing conditions on Badger Avenue and the adjacent block of Sixth Street: traffic volumes of about 10,000–11,000 vehicles per day on Badger, a 66-foot right of way and 48-foot pavement width, five-foot sidewalks, a 3.5-foot terrace and an aging pavement surface originally placed in 1964 with an asphalt overlay in 1994. Brown said the water main is 12-inch cast iron dating before the 1930s and that sanitary and storm sewer date from the 1960s, which supports reconstruction.

Traffic engineer Eric Lam said the corridor is a truck route and an unofficial shortcut between state trunk highways, and that the segment appears on multiple planning documents — including the Appleton master trails plan, regional bike-and-ped plans and a high-injury network listing — as a priority for safety and active-transportation improvements. To address pedestrian safety at the complex Badger–College–Story intersection, Lam…