By Alex Zank
March 1, 2016: Volunteers with hearing loss from the community visited the nearly finished reconstructed Milwaukee Intermodal Station train passenger concourse late last week to test its new hearing loop technology, according to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.
The technology better enables those using hearing aids or cochlear implants to pick up on sound systems in a building.
During reconstruction, workers embedded copper coils in the concrete to enable the technology, which consists of a wire that circles an area and is connected to the sound system. The electromagnetic signal transmitted by the loop is then picked up by the hearing devices, according to the Hearing Loss Association of America.
More than 1.3 million passengers per year use the facility at 422 W. St. Paul Avenue, in Milwaukee to make connections to Amtrak Hiawatha Service and Empire Builder trains, as well as to Greyhound and other local and regional bus services, county transit, taxis and personal vehicles, according to WisDOT.
The department expects the concourse reconstruction to finish early this summer.