Economy puts postal facility, road improvements on hold

Construction of the planned Oak Creek postal facility and associated road improvements to Nicholson Avenue may be postponed until the economy improves, a U.S. Postal Service representative said.

As a response to a $2.8 billion loss in 2008 and dim projections for 2009, USPS officials have put off all nonessential construction nationwide for the immediate future.

Marge Oehlke, a USPS representative, said the local project is going to happen.

"The Postal Service already has its permits in place for the Oak Creek Mail Processing and Distribution Center, so once the economy improves the project can move forward quickly," she said.

The postal service purchased the 64-acre site in Oak Creek for $8.1 million last month. The facility is to be located on the southwest corner of Nicholson and College avenues.

Kyle Vandercar, South Milwaukee city engineer, said the USPS delay will not impact the city's own plans for improvements to Nicholson, which are expected to begin in 2011 or 2012.

The city plans to partner with the state Department of Transportation and Oak Creek to widen Nicholson from Rawson Avenue to Hickory Street. USPS has agreed to pick up the improvements on Nicholson from Hickory to College avenues.

Originally USPS and its developer, Milwaukee's Cobalt Partners, had stated their tentative plan was to begin road improvements this summer, with construction to the postal facility starting later in 2009 or 2010. Construction of the 870,000-square-foot building is expected to take about two years.

But Scott Yauck, principal for Cobalt, pointed out that these plans have never been more than tentative.

"I think (the schedule) is really 'wait and see' right now," Yauck said. "But I don't know if that's a whole lot different than what was originally presented."

Improvements to College Avenue - an effort involving USPS, the state, the county, General Mitchell International Airport and the Federal Aviation Administration - are still planned to proceed.

"(The College Avenue project) is driven by an FAA mandate, really," Jim Zsebe, an airport project engineer, said. "It's driven by bringing our runway areas into compliance."

Oehlke said scope and pricing is still being developed for the improvements, but USPS plans to contribute. She also said the project will include a traffic circle to help control traffic.

Isral DeBruin can be reached at (262) 446-6608.