BY KRIS LEONHARDT
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
GREEN BAY – The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) Northeast Region held three public meetings for the proposed improvements on 23 miles of I-41 from WIS 96 —Wisconsin Avenue — in Appleton to County Highway F — Scheuring Road — in De Pere providing an overview and timeline for the project.
“This is a very exciting time for the project. Design is completing some projects, deep into the details on others. And we have construction starting here in just a few weeks. So, we held a public involvement meeting last July. Since then we continue to make great progress forward on this project,” said DOT Project Development Manager Kurt Peters.
The project will expand 23 miles of I-41 to six lanes from Wisconsin Avenue to Scheuring Road, construct auxiliary lanes between closely-spaced interchanges and collector-distributor roadway system between County Highway E (Ballard Road) and WIS 441 and reconstruct three of the interchanges to diverging diamond interchanges at the southern end of the project.
“At the 41/441 system interchange, we will be reconstructing that interchange, eliminating the existing loop ramps and the current configuration and going to higher speed flyover-type maneuvers for those movements,” explained DOT Design Project Manager Scott Ebel.
“We will be making a little bit more selective improvements at the three interchanges, in the middle of the project at County Highway N, doing some pavement replacement work at highway 55 — some minor improvements as well as reconstructing the bridges over 55 and nearby Maloney Road and County Highway J — raising the interchange and making some improvements to the roundabouts there for oversized overweight type vehicles.
“We will also be reconstructing the County Highway U and County Highway S interchanges to be roundabout interchanges, and we’ll be constructing a brand new interchange near South Bridge Road up in Brown County. This will also be a roundabout interchange as well the reconstructed frontage roads.”
The project will include the replacement of 11 local and county road overpasses and underpasses, resurfacing of three park-and-ride lots, construction of a new salt shed, the construction of a combined Wrightstown Post/Safety and Weight Enforcement Facility and work on 17 storm water ponds
“In terms of the overall project schedule, it’s the first quarter of 2024… we’re kind of full speed ahead right now on our design and traffic management planning, and those types of activities. We’re also in the middle of real estate acquisition on the on the project, as well as our utility coordination efforts on the project,” Ebel added.
“Our schedule for construction is beginning very soon, and we had our first lets last month and we anticipate construction to begin in April,” said DOT Construction Project Manager Bryan Learst.
“Some traffic impacts: we expect to maintain two lanes northbound and southbound during the peak hours with some night closures for work that needs to be required in off peak times, with some full closures for bridge removal and bridge setting and those will have detours associated with them.”
Work will begin in April, with the Capitol Drive overpass. See the included map for the 2024 schedule.
Each mainline segment is expected to take two construction seasons each to complete.
The public meeting is still available for viewing at tinyurl.com/41-VPM7-OREG.
For more information on the project, visit https://i41project.wisconsindot.gov.