Wisconsin Highways

Improving connections for goods and services between the New North and the rest of the world

Story by Sean Fitzgerald

THE HIGHWAYS AND BRIDGES that carry goods and people to and within northeast Wisconsin remain a crucial and continually evolving part of the region’s economic development landscape.

Nearly $1 billion worth of projects are just wrapping up, underway, or are scheduled for the Fox Valley in the next five years. Billions of dollars of materials used in local manufacturing plants and products sold to area residents pass over these highways every year. In addition, hundreds of thousands of area employees use these highways to commute back and forth to work everyday.

Transportation infrastructure projects – though they might occasionally pose an inconvenience to motorists – provide growth and prosperity. Without them, traffic congestion builds and local economies shrivel up.

We’ve included the following several large-scale transportation improvement projects, highlighting their cost, timeline, project scope and impact of traffic throughout the region.

U.S. 41 – Fond du Lac County
THE AORTA OF THE REGION, U.S. Highway 41 is not only the primary route of traffic carrying goods and people between communities in the Fox Valley, but it’s the first and foremost road for many vehicles driving from elsewhere to access the region.

As the southern gateway to the New North region, U.S. 41 in Fond du Lac County carries an average of 28,400 vehicles a day, according to 2005 traffic counts from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. And with such heavy use, it’s become in dire need of repair and improvements to make its travel safer.

A series of projects, totaling $73 million, started earlier in 2008 and are scheduled to wrap up in early 2010 and will resurface the roadway in the area north of the city, raise overpasses for two railroad bridges and three urban roadways, as well as reconstruct interchanges at State Road 23 and Hickory Street. A pedestrian bridge will also be constructed over U.S. 41 to accommodate recreational users of the Wild Goose State Trail.

This past summer, the roadway north of the city of Fond du Lac was ground and resurfaced for a smoother, safer riding surface, and high-tension cables were added to the median of the expressway to help prevent vehicular accidents from crossing over into oncoming traffic.

A component of the project to reconstruct the State Road 23/Johnson Street interchange and raise the height of the overpass will wrap up this November after inconveniencing motorists for more than a year.

Concurrently, two railroad bridges – both to the north and south of Hickory Street – are being reconstructed to allow for greater height clearance. The Hickory Street interchange is also closed and under reconstruction, with plans to reopen in January 2010 with safer and more easily navigable on and off ramps. The interchange is the last of those along U.S. 41 in Fond du Lac to be reconstructed in the past five years, and carries the least amount of traffic with about 1,500 vehicles a day.

U.S. 41 - Outagamie County
THE BUSY SEGMENT of U.S. Highway 41 along Appleton’s north side will get a $20 million facelift in 2009 when the segment from Northland Avenue east to Kaukauna is resurfaced, given a wider shoulder on the side of the road, and receives a variety of other safety and environmental improvements.

The project is scheduled to begin in May 2009 and wrap up at the end of November, and will include raising the height of three overpasses to 16 feet to provide greater clearance and help prevent bridge hits. In additional to resurfacing and widening the shoulders of the expressway, a high-tension median cable guard will be added, as well as lighting and a sound and sight barrier wall at the 441/41 system interchange. The new surface will provide a smoother ride to the more than 57,000 vehicles that drive the stretch each day.

Further down the road – literally and figuratively – the state is planning interchange improvements on U.S. 41 at College and Wisconsin avenues in the vicinity of Fox River Mall. No construction timeline has been established at this point for the estimated $5 million project, which will add auxiliary lanes on both the north and southbound segments of U.S. 41 between Wisconsin to College. That segment is among the busiest in all northeast Wisconsin, carrying an estimated 74,000 vehicles a day, according to state traffic counts in 2007.

The future project, estimated to occur sometime between 2010 and 2013, will also add a second exiting lane at the southbound ramp of the College Avenue interchange, and dual left and right turn lanes at both the north and southbound off ramps at the interchange.

U.S. 41 Expansion - Winnebago County
THE MOST SUBSTANTIAL of all highway construction projects on the horizon for northeast Wisconsin, the heavily traveled stretch of U.S. 41 south of Breezewood Lane in Neenah will be expanded from four to six lanes for a 17-mile segment to the southern end of Oshkosh.

The entire project, currently estimated at $443 million at the current value of the dollar, experienced its initial components during recent months, but isn’t expected to wrap up completely until late 2014. With an estimated traffic count of 56,000 vehicles per day, the segment carries a significant amount of commuter travel, as well as products going between businesses from one northeast Wisconsin community to another.

As part of the project, the interchanges at Breezewood Lane in Neenah and at 9th Avenue, State Road 21, and U.S. Highway 45 in Oshkosh will all be reconstructed to accommodate higher volumes of traffic more safely. The project also develops two new overpasses at Lake Butte des Morts Drive and Snell Road near Oshkosh’s Northwest Industrial Park, as well as a total of 16 roundabouts placed at various interchanges and at intersections with frontage roads.

The jewel of the project, a new six-lane crossing over Lake Butte des Morts, will include a 12-foot wide multi-modal trail across the bridge that will connect to the Wiouwash county recreational trail. The bridge, which often becomes a bottleneck for traffic due to the ingress of U.S. 45 at its north end, carries an estimated 67,000 vehicles per day, according to 2007 traffic counts from the state DOT.

During the summer of 2008, the DOT began purchasing properties along the route and razing existing businesses and homes to allow room for the highway expansion. That process is expected to continue into 2010 before the scheduled start of construction in 2011.

U.S. 45 expansion
NEARLY SIX YEARS after it began, the effort to build a four-lane divided expressway carrying traffic from U.S. 41 near Oshkosh to U.S. Highway 10 near Winchester is finally complete. In late August, road crews put the finishing touches on the $6 million final segment, converting what was the former rural two-lane State Road 110 into a four-lane highway between Winnebago County roads G and II.

Concurrently, crews finished work on a new overpass and interchange at County Road T just north of Oshkosh, replacing the at-grade intersection that had generated a number of safety concerns.

Overall, the former rural roadway connecting central and northern Wisconsin to the Fox Valley and beyond to the Milwaukee metropolitan area began in early 2002.

College Avenue Bridge - Appleton
HEAVILY ANTICIPATED for the past decade, traffic finally ceased this past August on Appleton’s busiest crossing over the Fox River.

The estimated $16.1 million project will demolish the existing two-lane bridge and construct a new four-lane span once complete in November 2009. The project also includes the construction of the Banta Court Bridge.

Once complete, the modern bridge will feature a bicycle lane, an interior barrier separating vehicular and pedestrian traffic, decorative railings and lights, and four lookout areas that will be constructed over the river.

The bridge replacement project and its accompanying aesthetics will also help accent the RiverHeath mixed-use redevelopment project at the east end of the bridge. The estimated $55 million project from Tanesay Development kicked off site preparation work in late October for the initial phase of a multi-unit condominium building and a second commercial-use structure on former industrial property along the bank of the Fox River. 

But with an average daily traffic count of nearly 22,500 vehicles as of 2007 and the most direct route between downtown and the city’s east side, detouring so many vehicles has already proven somewhat of an issue since College Avenue was cut off in early August.

Oneida Street’s Skyline Bridge has remained the recommended detour to connect with downtown Appleton, but an overwhelming number of motorists have found taking South Lawe Street is more direct. Roadways in the residential area were never designed for such high volumes of traffic, more than double the vehicles that typically travel the area. In response, the city public works department in late October closed a portion of South River Street in the vicinity of Lawe Street in an effort to provide greater protection to pedestrians and bicyclists in the area.

Wisconsin Street Bridge - Oshkosh
LIKE DOWNTOWN APPLETON, the city of Oshkosh is enduring the trials of having its community’s busiest crossing of the Fox River closed for an extended period of time while the previous bridge is improved. And like Appleton, the former two-lane bridge is being replaced with a four-lane, more decorative crossing that includes a protected lane for pedestrian and bicycle traffic.

Unlike Appleton’s College Avenue Bridge project, though, Oshkosh’s former Wisconsin Avenue Bridge – which carries an estimated 18,700 vehicles a day – was able to remain open for roughly 75 percent of the 15-month project while the replacement bridge was being constructed parallel to the former bridge, which only closed in May 2008 for demolition.

The new $18.5 million movable span, which opened in late October, can open for marine traffic and includes two decorative bridge tender towers, and decorative concrete and lighting. Tunnels constructed at each end of the bridge provide safe under passage for pedestrian and bicycles on the Wiouwash recreational trail along the bank of the Fox River.

Concurrent to the bridge replacement project, State Road 44/Ohio Street at the southern end of the bridge has been undergoing a $4.3 million reconstruction since May 2008 to provide a wider, safer four-lane urban roadway to handle its increasing traffic load, which carried nearly 12,000 vehicles a day as of 2007 data. The project, which should be complete in November, also included new water and sewer infrastructure and new sidewalks.

Highway 151 Bypass – Fond du Lac
AFTER ENDURING what’s seemed like continual road construction on U.S. Highway 151 near Fond du Lac for the better part of the last decade, the four-lane expansion of the major roadway connecting Madison with northeast Wisconsin finally wrapped up in late September.

Overall, the more than $100 million project – completed in several different phases since 2000 – has created a four-lane expressway through southern Fond du Lac County from Waupun to Fond du Lac, and then a four-lane beltline around the south and east sides of the city. The project included a recreational trail along the bypass, and a series of overpasses and interchanges along the route.

The final stretch – a $13 million project between County Road D and State Road 175, was completed during the past two years to connect the bypass with the path of the formerly two-lane U.S. 151.

City of Fond du Lac Community Development Director Wayne Rollin remembers discussions during the 1980s to help get state enumeration and eventual funding for the project. Rollin said the project turned out the way it was visualized about two decades ago, and will help meet community needs in Fond du Lac.

“Going back to the initial discussions in the 80s, there were a couple of goals that we wanted to accomplish with this,” Rollin said, which included removing semi-truck traffic through the city along the former U.S. 151 route, and providing an efficient way for Fond Lac residents to access one side of the community to the other.

Even though the long-awaited project is complete, the city and the DOT have been monitoring traffic along Fond du Lac bypass since it opened, and already have made some safety modifications.

Next on the docket will be the construction of an overpass and interchange at County Road V south of the city, replacing the at-grade intersection that was built along with the bypass construction project in 2004. The project has already received state approval, Rollin said, though it has yet to be scheduled.

Further down the agenda, public hearings are scheduled for 2009 to receive input on a proposal to reconstruct the State Road 23/Johnson Street interchange with the U.S. 151 bypass. Rollin said the DOT would like to construct a free-flowing interchange, meaning traffic wouldn’t be required to stop at on and off ramps.

Such a project would be tied to another proposed project to expand State Road 23 to four lanes through rural eastern Fond du Lac County to Plymouth in Sheboygan County, which would create the only rural four-lane expressway linking U.S. 41 with Interstate 43 in eastern Wisconsin. That project – scheduled for construction between 2013 and 2015 – is estimated to cost between $110 to $120 million.

State Road 15 expansion - Hortonville
THE BEDROOM COMMUNITY of Hortonville in northwest Outagamie County becomes less and less sleepy as the Fox Cities creep closer and closer to its borders.

State Road 15 – formerly the U.S. 45 route which carried traffic from northern Wisconsin to the Fox Valley – was carrying an estimated 16,500 vehicles a day in 2007, according to state DOT figures, but DOT officials are predicting annual average daily traffic volumes in excess of 20,000 vehicles along that stretch by 2025.

With such a heavy increase in volume projected, the state determined it would construct a four-lane divided expressway south of the Village of Hortonville to the existing four-lane segment near Greenville, as well as expand the existing two-lane segment north of Hortonville toward New London.

Such a project also demanded a bypass around Hortonville, an issue that met significant controversy among nearby property owners. In 2007, the state resolved to construct the bypass to the north of the village, where it will converge with the existing State Road 15 near County Road JJ.

The project has not been enumerated for construction at this time, as the state DOT continues the preliminary expansion concepts and costs and conducts its final environmental impact statement for the project. The final design of the project is expected to be officially mapped and presented to the state for consideration by 2010.

State Road 55 – Kaukauna
CITY OF KAUKAUNA residents have been patiently awaiting the completion of the $1.8 million reconstruction of State Road 55/Crooks Avenue, the main north-south route through the community. The route carries more than 15,000 vehicles a day, according to state DOT figures.

The project, expected to wrap up this November, included a new concrete surface and storm sewer infrastructure. Traffic was detoured as far west as Kimberly and Little Chute to accommodate the construction project, which connects the south side of Kaukauna with the Highway 55 bridge crossing the Fox River, which was reconstructed just a few years ago.

State Road 96 – Wisconsin Avenue
MOTORISTS IN THE BUSY RETAIL and commercial area north of Fox River Mall faced minor inconvenience this past summer as crews upgraded the State Road 96/Wisconsin Avenue thoroughfare to a four-lane divided highway for the three-mile segment between Casaloma Drive and State Road 76.

The $5.13 million project is scheduled for completion in November and reconstructed and expanded the former two-lane highway past the north side of the Outagamie County Regional Airport and the growing Airport Industrial Park in the Town of Greenville. The project also included the creation of left turn lanes at the intersections of Casaloma Drive, McCarthy Road, Mayflower Road and County Road CB to accommodate a more free flow of traffic.

Outagamie/Appleton Airport
TRUCKS AND CARS aren’t the only important vehicles bringing valuable goods and people into the region. Municipal and county airports play an often less visible, but just as crucial role in the movement of products and people in the local economy.

Outagamie County Regional Airport is currently undergoing a $6.5 million multi-phase project to enhance the scope of its general aviation capabilities.

General aviation – that is, the private and corporate planes, flights and hangars – had been grouped with the main commercial terminal where airline carriers arrive and depart with their passengers. Space was limited, making any expansion impractical, said Marty Lenss, director of the airport.

This past summer, all of the private plane hangars near the main terminal were relocated to the south end of the airport, and a network of taxiways and a large concrete apron were constructed to accommodate private aviation. A new access road is under construction specifically for general aviation off of County Road BB at the airport’s southern boundary, and is scheduled to open this November.

The final phase will be to build a new general aviation-specific terminal on the concrete apron that, once completed, will have created an entirely new and separate community for general aviation, far away from commercial jet traffic.

“It’ll really provide a first-class impression to folks who are flying in,” said Lenss, who commented that the new general aviation locality offers plenty of real estate to expand as there becomes more demand for corporate jet hangars.

Lenss added it’s the airport administration’s goal to expand general aviation, diversifying revenue streams for the county airport and improving amenities for nearby business and industrial users of the airport.