Poll anyone who regularly drives on Interstate 41 between Appleton and De Pere, and you’ll likely hear a complaint about the traffic. But the end to the congestion is in sight — by the end of the decade, there will be three lanes of traffic flowing in both directions.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation has been working to expand the 23-mile corridor from four to six lanes between State 96/Wisconsin Avenue in Grand Chute and Scheuring Road in De Pere for several years. That stretch of the highway has more crashes than similar roadways in the state, and the number of daily travelers has increased 20 percent since 2012.
“This stretch has been on the docket for a while. The congestion and accident levels are too high,” says Scott Ebel, I-41 design project manager with the DOT. “We’re also going to address aging pavement — the current road was built in the ’60s — and be able to update overpass bridges so they meet today’s standards.”
The project is expected to cost about $1.25 billion, which includes not only construction costs but also design, environmental assessment, real estate acquisition and utility relocations.
Ebel says the congestion and frequent crashes lead to unexpected delays that raise travel times throughout that portion of the I-41 corridor. The situation also decreases the reliability of travel time in the area, which causes challenges for commuters using the road to get to and from work.
The environmental assessment phase for the project is wrapping up, and the next phase involves the relocation of utilities, engineering, purchasing lands where needed and other steps to make the road ready for construction, which will begin in 2025 and wrap up in 2029, Ebel says.
As part of the project, one lane will be added to each side of the highway, with most of the space coming from the median. In addition, an auxiliary lane will be added near some exits to help with traffic flow. The eight service interchanges along that stretch of the highway will be reconstructed into roundabouts or diverging diamonds to improve traffic flow.
As part of the project, an interchange for the new Brown County South Bridge Connector at Southbridge Road will be built, and the interchange of I-41 and State 441 and the nearby Ballard Road exit will be redone. The State 441/I-41 interchange is near the Ballard Road exit, so a “collection and distribution system” will be built there to maintain traffic flow, Ebel says.
“If you’ve seen the I-41 interchange with State 29 in Green Bay, it will be similar to that — a loop alternative with flyover ramps so vehicles can go at higher speeds and take away the immediate slowdown going around the curves exiting and entering 441,” he says.
During construction, lanes and exits will be closed at various times, but Ebel says there will be plenty of communication letting drivers know what to expect.
The South Bridge Connector project, which creates a bypass around Green Bay for trucks and travelers moving between I-41 and I-43, has been discussed for decades, says Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach.
The new road will begin at Packerland Drive in the Town of Lawrence and proceed to I-41 and then follow Southbridge and Red Maple roads to the Fox River, where a new bridge will be built. On the other side, the road will follow Rockland Road to reach the intersection of County Highways X and GV in Ledgeview.
“This is the most significant breakthrough in the past 30 years,” Streckenbach says. “Now that the location of the South Bridge arterial corridor is set, it gets us one step closer to providing for economic development opportunities, improving infrastructure and increasing safety for southern Brown County.”
Construction on that project will begin in either 2024 or 2025 and is slated to finish by 2032.
wisconsindot.gov/Pages/projects/by-region/ne/i41/default.aspx
