Milwaukee County Parks has finished converting a stretch of Underwood Creek Parkway in Wauwatosa into a dedicated bike and pedestrian trail, closing the road to through traffic by motor vehicles while opening a new link in the Oak Leaf Trail network. The change caps a project that began with public meetings back in 2024 and construction that started in July 2025.
A Half-Mile Stretch Reimagined
As reported by Urban Milwaukee, the county converted about three-quarters of a mile of Underwood Creek Parkway into a multiuse trail running roughly between N. Swan Boulevard and the UW-Extension Firefly Ridge garden, while also rebuilding the remaining degraded roadway looping around the northern end of the county grounds. Drivers can still reach the park, even though the parkway itself is no longer a through route for cars. According to Tosa News, the new configuration dead-ends the road at Firefly Ridge on one end and at the Wisconsin Lutheran facilities entrance on the other, meaning it will no longer function as a through street for motorists.
Milwaukee County Parks says public vehicular access to Wil-O-Way, Firefly Ridge, and Hansen Golf Course will remain once construction wraps, according to the agency's project page. The road had deteriorated badly over the years — Tosa News reports it carried a pavement rating of just 38 out of 100 as far back as 2017 — and the parkway was also closed for several years during the reconstruction of I-41, according to Urban Milwaukee.
Funding and Cost Figures Differ by Source
Wisconsin provided Milwaukee County a grant to mitigate effects of the I-41 project, which the county applied toward the parkway's trail and road design and construction, per Urban Milwaukee's reporting. The exact dollar figures vary depending on the source: the county's own project page states Milwaukee County Parks was awarded $278,300 from WisDOT for anticipated impacts, while Tosa News reported the county received $278,000 in state highway funds. Cost estimates for the overall project similarly diverge — Tosa News put the total at approximately $3.8 million, while an earlier Urban Milwaukee report from November 2024 estimated the Underwood Creek Parkway reconstruction and conversion of roughly 3,000 feet of roadway to trail at approximately $6.6 million.
The design itself emerged from a public process. In March 2024, a public-input meeting was held to decide between two design options, and in a near-unanimous decision, residents selected what the county calls Alternative A, per the mkecountyparks.org project page. The reconstruction plan also included evaluating stormwater-management practices and making accommodations for the Oak Leaf Trail within the road corridor, the same source notes.
County Leaders Weigh In
Milwaukee County Parks Director Guy Smith said the project improves infrastructure, expands recreation opportunities, and protects natural resources, according to Urban Milwaukee. County Supervisor Shawn Rolland, whose district includes the parkway, said constituents contacted him about fixing the road more than any other issue in his district, describing it as a pothole-filled problem. Rolland said the new trail and roadway will improve park infrastructure, restore access to popular destinations, and support environmental sustainability.
Wauwatosa Mayor Dennis McBride called the new trail sort of a miracle, per the same Urban Milwaukee report. McBride said Wisconsin has not provided Milwaukee County enough funding for adequate resident services and amenities, adding that the trail amenity is nearly miraculous given county demands and the low level of funding returned from Madison.
Part of a Bigger Pavement-Reduction Push
The Underwood Creek project is Milwaukee County Parks' second major road-to-trail conversion, following a 0.8-mile Menomonee River Parkway conversion completed in 2025, according to Urban Milwaukee. The new trail adds a dedicated route to the Root River line of the Oak Leaf Trail network, and the county has said it wants to convert more park roadways into trails going forward.
The agency says reducing paved surfaces lowers stormwater runoff and the urban heat-island effect, and it has adopted a broader policy of reducing pavement wherever possible across its parks, per its trail projects campaign page. The county says it has a goal of adding 10 miles of new trails between 2024 and 2026, and that public support for trail usage has grown since 2020. Trails, the agency notes, cost less to maintain than roadways over their lifespan, with the parks system already maintaining 99 miles of hard-surface trails and parkways across more than 60 miles of roadways and 142 acres of parking lots.
Milwaukee County has pursued similar conversions elsewhere, including a roughly $3.4 million reconstruction of less than a mile of Jackson Park Drive with two blocks converted to trail, part of about $10 million the county budgeted in 2025 for two separate road-to-trail projects, according to Urban Milwaukee's earlier reporting.
