GREEN BAY, Wis. (NBC 26) -- Bill Kilp watches over 1,000 semi-trucks rumble by his house every week.
"If you’re here more than five minutes, you’re gonna see a truck," Kilp said.
And it’s the same for every home on North Broadway in downtown Green Bay. For two years, Kilp and his neighbors have fought to get the semi-truck path in front of their houses rerouted.
The city completed a study in 2018 that found over 150 trucks drive up and down the street per day.
"The results of the study also told us that there was one truck every three to five minutes," Kilp said. "And that’s pretty much 24/7, 365 days of the year."
Instead of having the trucks turn from Mather St. on to N. Broadway, the proposed route change would have trucks going two blocks further, up to McDonald St.
Kilp invited the mayor to his house in 2017 to show him the issue.
"He visited for about an hour -- hour and a half I think it was -- and during that time, he had to stop talking to me several times because of the truck traffic," Kilp said about the visit. "We were inside by the way."
The City of Green Bay found almost 80 percent of residents surveyed on N. Broadway, including Kilp, believe the trucks negatively impact their lives.
"We have to live with it every day," resident Rudy Randall said. "If you went home and 2, 3 o'clock in the morning there’s trucks going by and the house is shaking and you’re trying to get sleep, it isn’t easy."
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But District 7 alderman Randy Scannell says it’s unclear who has the final say in getting the path rerouted.
"We’ve been working on this for quite some time on the city’s end, working with the county and kind of back and forth trying to figure out who exactly can pull the trigger on this and make it happen," Scannell said.
Scannell says local businesses are interested in helping as well.
"It's not just loud," Kilp said. "It’s air pollution. There’s a safety factor."
Still, Scannell is determined to assist Kilp. The alder says even 50 percent less semi traffic would be a success.
"This whole North end is changing and it’s up and coming and we want to, as much as we can in the entire city, reroute truck traffic," Scannell said.
According to the city's survey, almost 43 percent of residents believe the truck traffic has gotten worse over the past two years.
"Until you actually are sitting here and witnessing it, you really don’t get it," Kilp said.
Randall says the 18-wheelers are causing neighborhood safety concerns.
"The truck had come by and [a child] almost got hit," he said. "And I saved a little boy’s life."
Kilp says he believes the semis started frequenting the neighborhood more often after former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed an Executive Order in 2016 that temporarily allowed truckers to log flexible driving hours to avoid a petroleum shortage when a pipeline between Milwaukee and Green Bay was shut down.
On Jan. 18, the reroute was added to the Green Bay Traffic, Bicycle & Pedestrian Commission meeting agenda. After that meeting, according to District 7 County Board Supervisor Tom Friberg, the Brown County Highway Department is currently discussing the issue. The next meeting is set to take place April 19.
