Wis 23 Sheboygan History

[merrycilantro]

Can anybody on here give me a history of Wis 23 from about Plymouth to Sheboygan? All I can get off of Wikipedia is that the current alignment plans originated around 1972. One other thread on here had said the former alignment of 23 was along what is now CTH C and 28 was along PP (..maybe?)

I was also perusing the Comprehensive Plan for Sheboygan and noticed they are advocating for "reinstatement of an interchange of I-43 and Indiana Ave." They had one there? How long ago was it removed? I can see based off of The Google where it would possibly have been, my best assumption was that it was perhaps a jug-handle interchange from when I-43 was still US 141, but I am unsure, hence my post. I did wonder why CTH PP (Indiana Ave) sort of splits as it approaches I-43 and then re-emerges between 43 and Taylor.

Another main reason for my post...what was the logic behind the Expressway/Freeway (I'm really not sure to what standards 23 is built here) standards of 23 from Plymouth to Sheboygan. Were there more grandiose plans that got trampled by NIMBY's, or lack of funds...or did they simply just want to expressway all the way to Taylor Drive and then call it quits...

[Big John]

^^ Don't know about the other parts, but the I-43 and County PP (former Wis 28) interchange was removed in 1989 when the Sheboygan portion of I-43 speed limit was raised to 65.  It was a tight parclo AB fitted between PP and the railroad track to its north and considered substandard with the 65 seed limit.  Because of the constraints of the railroad to the north and the river to the immediate south, it would be expensive to reopen the interchange to modern standards.

[mgk920]

The best that I can tell, the WI 23 freeway was never intended to go farther 'in' in Sheboygan than it does now.

Mike

[triplemultiplex]

Can anybody on here give me a history of Wis 23 from about Plymouth to Sheboygan? All I can get off of Wikipedia is that the current alignment plans originated around 1972. One other thread on here had said the former alignment of 23 was along what is now CTH C and 28 was along PP (..maybe?)

CTH C was absolutely the old alignment.  PP used to be WI 28.  You can see some old grading on modern aerials where WI 23 used to bend south from Sheboygan into Kohler via Greenfield Drive.  That roadway was constructed in the 50's sometime prior to the US 141 bypass of Sheboygan (1959) and replaced Erie Street as WI 23.
Check this topo map from 1974:


I don't know the specific year the modern cloverleaf was built or how far west the freeway was initially built.  I'm going from memory off some old map I looked at years ago and can't remember if it was CTH Y or WI 32, but the weird ramps CTH Y has WB makes me lean toward that one.  What is for certain is WI 23 was completed on its current alignment to the west side of Plymouth by the end of the 80's, with the highway dropping to two lanes just west of the WI 57 interchange.
In 2005, the four-lane was extended west of Plymouth and an interchange was added to CTH C at that time.

Were there more grandiose plans that got trampled by NIMBY's, or lack of funds...or did they simply just want to expressway all the way to Taylor Drive and then call it quits...

Just the expansion project west to FdL.
http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/projects/neregion/23/index.htm

[merrycilantro]

Last I'd heard, there were talks to delay the project from Plymouth to Fond du Lac, but I haven't heard anything yet. I know there was an alternative for a free-flow interchange of 151 & 23 that would possibly have facilitated freeway/expressway from Madison (and points south) to Sheboygan, but that got defeated due to the Niagara Escarpment people, in favor of a No-Build alternative.

I just found it...interesting...how the freeway/expressway exits at Taylor Drive and then abruptly ends onto KMD/Erie Ave, and when I'd heard that there was once an interchange at Indiana I thought first, WHERE, and then I had wondered if it was when 43 was 141 and thus not at interstate standards.

[triplemultiplex]

Last I'd heard, there were talks to delay the project from Plymouth to Fond du Lac, but I haven't heard anything yet. I know there was an alternative for a free-flow interchange of 151 & 23 that would possibly have facilitated freeway/expressway from Madison (and points south) to Sheboygan, but that got defeated due to the Niagara Escarpment people, in favor of a No-Build alternative.

I think WisDOT also had traffic projections that showed free-flow access would not be necessary over the next couple decades.

I just found it...interesting...how the freeway/expressway exits at Taylor Drive and then abruptly ends onto KMD/Erie Ave,

When you think about it, though, the controlled access highway ends right where the built-up urban area began at the time.

[hobsini2]

I lived in Sheboygan when I was little back in 1979. Interestingly on Indiana Ave west of 8th St. Anyway, what I remember about 23 was the freeway went from just west of Erie Ave to Hwy 32. West of 32, 23 was a 2 lane road all the way to Fond du Lac.

One reason 23 has not been upgraded from what I remember had a lot to do with the tiny unicorp town of Greenbush and the Kettle Moraine Forest.

[triplemultiplex]

I lived in Sheboygan when I was little back in 1979. Interestingly on Indiana Ave west of 8th St. Anyway, what I remember about 23 was the freeway went from just west of Erie Ave to Hwy 32. West of 32, 23 was a 2 lane road all the way to Fond du Lac.

Was 23 still using the old CTH C alignment or did the current expressway ever exist as a two lane highway on that alignment between WI 32 and Plymouth?  I am under the impression that it was built as four lanes from the get-go.

[mgk920]

I lived in Sheboygan when I was little back in 1979. Interestingly on Indiana Ave west of 8th St. Anyway, what I remember about 23 was the freeway went from just west of Erie Ave to Hwy 32. West of 32, 23 was a 2 lane road all the way to Fond du Lac.

Was 23 still using the old CTH C alignment or did the current expressway ever exist as a two lane highway on that alignment between WI 32 and Plymouth?  I am under the impression that it was built as four lanes from the get-go.

The current freeway/expressway was built four lanes from the start - it runs due westward from I-43, approximately over the '660' elevation label on the above map.

Mike

[hobsini2]

I lived in Sheboygan when I was little back in 1979. Interestingly on Indiana Ave west of 8th St. Anyway, what I remember about 23 was the freeway went from just west of Erie Ave to Hwy 32. West of 32, 23 was a 2 lane road all the way to Fond du Lac.

Was 23 still using the old CTH C alignment or did the current expressway ever exist as a two lane highway on that alignment between WI 32 and Plymouth?  I am under the impression that it was built as four lanes from the get-go.

From what I remember, 23 by that time was not on what is now Hwy C. The freeway portion ended at 32 but it became a 2 lane road in the current eastbound ROW west of 32. Think of it the same way that 51 was just north of 19 in Madison until the recent upgrade of 51. That's what it used to be.

[Roadguy]

The current freeway/expressway was built four lanes from the start - it runs due westward from I-43, approximately over the '660' elevation label on the above map.

Mike

The original "upgraded" STH 23 signed back in the 30's followed the section of 23 that exists today in Sheboygan.  At present day I-43, it turned SE towards present day to Greenfield Dr and Fond Du Lac Ave in Kohler / Sheboygan Falls.  You can still see remnants of the old roadbed on google maps aerials: https://goo.gl/maps/JNMiA

Before the four lane expansion, 23 followed present day County Road C from Sheboygan Falls to Plymouth where it connected back up to the existing 23 alignment west of Plymouth.  The four lane section between Plymouth and Sheboygan was built as a new alignment.

The four lane expansion was never meant to have full freeway design, only interchanges for Kohler, Sheboygan Falls, and Plymouth (as we see today).  It does not see enough traffic to warrant expensive interchange / overpass construction at the rest of the intersections.  The interchange at County Road Y is designed the way it is particularly for the westbound ramps for 2 reasons: First, to give better spacing between I-43 and Y.  Second, the heaviest movement is westbound to southbound, with the loop design it allows for a right turn off the exit ramp to southbound Y.

Finally back in the day (I am jogging my memory but I think it was removed in the 80's), there was a diamond interchange at present day STH 57 and County Road C (then STH 23) in Plymouth.  The intersections were on present day County Road C and the ramps were to/from STH 57.  On google maps and Sheboygan County GIS you can still see the remnant unused lane in the SE quadrant.  The NW quadrant was sold to Fleet Farm and the SE quadrant use to be a rest area or weight station (hence the parking lot in that quadrant).  The NE quadrant was sold back to the property owner.

[dalemidex]

I'll chip in what I know -- several of these points are already touched on but some are new.

Hwy 23 heading west out of Sheboygan followed Erie Avenue, which after 18th St angles southwest toward Kohler and changed from Erie Ave to Upper Falls Road.  At Kohler it followed the route of today's County C through Kohler, Sheboygan Falls and Plymouth, then west out of Plymouth through Greenbush.

In about 1950 Kohler Memorial Drive was built on the west side of Sheboygan.  23 left Erie Avenue at 18th St and went due west for about two miles as the new Kohler Memorial Drive before angling sharply to the southwest to rejoin the original Upper Falls Road route into Kohler.  Back at that point there was no road in the present location of I-43.  Its predecessor US 141 was routed through the city along today's Business Drive to 14th St, north to Calumet Drive and then north on 15th St to exit the city on Lakeshore Drive (what was until very recently County LS).  Hwy 141 was rerouted in the early 1960's to bypass Sheboygan on the west, and at that point the angled half-cloverleaf interchange at Hwy 23 was built as shown in the map previously posted.  141 was a two-lane road crossing the four-lane Kohler Memorial Drive Hwy 23 at that time.

In the late 70's as 141 was upgraded to I-43 (including the second pair of lanes to create the divided highway) the re-routing of Hwy 23 west of Sheboygan was also constructed.  Instead of Kohler Memorial Drive angling southwest into Kohler as Upper Falls Road, the new 23 was built as a four-lane freeway to head due west from the new I-43 interchange.  The previous 23 west of old 141/new I-43 was cut off -- some of the roadbed was used as a section of an entrance to the Kohler complex, others dug up.  The new 23 was a four-lane limited-access freeway which ended at Hwy 32.  This opened in about 1979.   At the west end of the new freeway Hwy 23 followed 32 south into Sheboygan Falls and resumed on the original road west to Plymouth.  Hwy Y took over the original Hwy 23 through Kohler and Falls, ending at Hwy 32 were 23 resumed the original western route to Plymouth.

In the mid 1980's the new Highway 23 pushed west from 32 up to Highway 57.  It was as it appears today -- a four-lane expressway with at-grade crossing.  At 57 the new road ended, and 23 jogged south with 57 to resume the original route through Plymouth.  The former 23 between Falls and Plymouth was named Hwy C.  The effect of this was former 23 was Y from Kohler through Falls up to 23, and then it was C from Falls to Plymouth.  Eventually that was all changed to C, with Y ending at Kohler and no longer heading west into Falls.

The interchange at 57 and (the original) 23 on the east side of Plymouth was a diamond with 57 going over the top as a two-lane road.  About a mile south of this 57/23 interchange 57 widened from 2 to 4 lanes near PP. Around the time the new 23 was pushed west to 57, they also rebuilt 57 to add a couple more miles of four-lane road.  The stretch of 57 from PP north to O was made four lanes, and the old interchange at 57 and (legacy) 23 was replaced with an at-grade stoplight it is today. 

In the last few years of the 80's the "new" 23 was pushed further west again from 57 as a two-lane road to bypass Plymouth on the north side of town.  On the west end of Plymouth the old route through the city -- now designated as C -- met up with the new road.  West of Plymouth 23 was rebuilt to Fond du Lac around 1989, bypassing Greenbush and straightening/flattening the roadway enough to allow more safe passing zones.  Hwy 23 went from 2 to 4 lanes along the north side of Plymouth a few years later.

A side note on 28 / PP.  Hwy 28 original went west from Sheboygan on Indiana Avenue and then Lower Falls Road through Kohler and Sheboygan Falls, exiting Falls to the southwest toward Waldo.  The new US 141 bypass along the west side of Sheboygan was built in the early/mid 60's, and where Hwy 28 crossed over 141 it was hemmed in by the river to the south and railroad tracks to the north.  So the interchange created between 141 and 28 was a tight, narrow configuration with very sharp corners and rather limited acceleration / deceleration and merge space.  Definitely not interstate standards.  However it served a pretty heavy traffic volume because Sheboygan had no north-south way to cross the river west of 14th St.  So a significant number of cars used 141/I-43 and the Hwy 28 exit as a way to get from one side of Sheboygan to the other.  The construction of Taylor Drive remedied this and took the intra-city traffic off of I-43 and the nasty Hwy 28 interchange.  Hwy 28 and County PP swapped routes and the interchange at (todays') PP and I-43 was closed.