Why was uS 16 in Wisconsin decomissioned?

[DandyDan]

WI-16 could really be largely eliminated without much trouble.

Between LaCrosse and Sparta - replaced with WI-21 extention
Between Sparta and Tomah - county highway
Between Tomah and WI Dells - eliminated due to duplex with US-12
Between Dells and Columbus - replaced with WI-89 extention
Between Columbus and Watertown - eliminated due to duplexes with WI-60 and WI-26
Between Watertown and I-94 - replaced with WI-19 extention

You can combine a lot of routes like WI-164 and WI-144 just duplex the two ends with I-41. Personally I am getting tired of all these routing changes. I just noticed a few months ago WI-74 is gone. I am thinking why now? Why not at least wait another year when the next edition of the state map comes out. The 2015-2016 edition is already out of date and it's still 2016. I don't get why it was even done away with at all in the first place. Nothing at least I am aware of has added as a state highway anywhere in the area. What's the trade off here?

The trade off is additional mileage for US 18 when it moves to the Les Paul Parkway. And because the village of Menominee Falls requested the removal.

Don't forget about its triplex with WI 13 and WI 23 through WI Dells across the Wisconsin River.

[SEWIGuy]

WI-16 could really be largely eliminated without much trouble.

Between LaCrosse and Sparta - replaced with WI-21 extention
Between Sparta and Tomah - county highway
Between Tomah and WI Dells - eliminated due to duplex with US-12
Between Dells and Columbus - replaced with WI-89 extention
Between Columbus and Watertown - eliminated due to duplexes with WI-60 and WI-26
Between Watertown and I-94 - replaced with WI-19 extention

You can combine a lot of routes like WI-164 and WI-144 just duplex the two ends with I-41. Personally I am getting tired of all these routing changes. I just noticed a few months ago WI-74 is gone. I am thinking why now? Why not at least wait another year when the next edition of the state map comes out. The 2015-2016 edition is already out of date and it's still 2016. I don't get why it was even done away with at all in the first place. Nothing at least I am aware of has added as a state highway anywhere in the area. What's the trade off here?

The trade off is additional mileage for US 18 when it moves to the Les Paul Parkway. And because the village of Menominee Falls requested the removal.

And unless I'm missing something, the WI-74 removal was the first significant route change since the reroutes with the opening of the US-10 freeway between I-39 and Marshfield.  And that was...seven years ago? 

Has Wisconsin ever gone that long between changes in state highway numbering?

[dvferyance]

WI-16 could really be largely eliminated without much trouble.

Between LaCrosse and Sparta - replaced with WI-21 extention
Between Sparta and Tomah - county highway
Between Tomah and WI Dells - eliminated due to duplex with US-12
Between Dells and Columbus - replaced with WI-89 extention
Between Columbus and Watertown - eliminated due to duplexes with WI-60 and WI-26
Between Watertown and I-94 - replaced with WI-19 extention

You can combine a lot of routes like WI-164 and WI-144 just duplex the two ends with I-41. Personally I am getting tired of all these routing changes. I just noticed a few months ago WI-74 is gone. I am thinking why now? Why not at least wait another year when the next edition of the state map comes out. The 2015-2016 edition is already out of date and it's still 2016. I don't get why it was even done away with at all in the first place. Nothing at least I am aware of has added as a state highway anywhere in the area. What's the trade off here?

The trade off is additional mileage for US 18 when it moves to the Les Paul Parkway. And because the village of Menominee Falls requested the removal.

How is that even a trade off? The Les Paul Parkway is already a state highway with both WI-59 and WI-164. That's not even planned to happen for another 4 years why not wait until that happens and turn over WI-74? I still have doubts if that is even ever going to happen. It's been delayed like 25 times. The decommissioning of WI-74 was a very idiotic decommissioning in my opinion.

[dvferyance]

WI-16 could really be largely eliminated without much trouble.

Between LaCrosse and Sparta - replaced with WI-21 extention
Between Sparta and Tomah - county highway
Between Tomah and WI Dells - eliminated due to duplex with US-12
Between Dells and Columbus - replaced with WI-89 extention
Between Columbus and Watertown - eliminated due to duplexes with WI-60 and WI-26
Between Watertown and I-94 - replaced with WI-19 extention

You can combine a lot of routes like WI-164 and WI-144 just duplex the two ends with I-41. Personally I am getting tired of all these routing changes. I just noticed a few months ago WI-74 is gone. I am thinking why now? Why not at least wait another year when the next edition of the state map comes out. The 2015-2016 edition is already out of date and it's still 2016. I don't get why it was even done away with at all in the first place. Nothing at least I am aware of has added as a state highway anywhere in the area. What's the trade off here?

The trade off is additional mileage for US 18 when it moves to the Les Paul Parkway. And because the village of Menominee Falls requested the removal.

And unless I'm missing something, the WI-74 removal was the first significant route change since the reroutes with the opening of the US-10 freeway between I-39 and Marshfield.  And that was...seven years ago? 

Has Wisconsin ever gone that long between changes in state highway numbering?

That was only like 3 years ago as far as I am concerned Wisconsin could go 50 years without any routing changes. Over the 35 years I have been alive there have been so many of them I can't even count. I see no reason tat they could not have at least waited until the time the next edition of the state map came out. The current one is already out of date after just being out a few months. What was the hurry? The US 18 change in Waukesha hasn't even started yet. I am boycotting this change by never driving on the old WI-74 ever.

[SEWIGuy]

WI-16 could really be largely eliminated without much trouble.

Between LaCrosse and Sparta - replaced with WI-21 extention
Between Sparta and Tomah - county highway
Between Tomah and WI Dells - eliminated due to duplex with US-12
Between Dells and Columbus - replaced with WI-89 extention
Between Columbus and Watertown - eliminated due to duplexes with WI-60 and WI-26
Between Watertown and I-94 - replaced with WI-19 extention

You can combine a lot of routes like WI-164 and WI-144 just duplex the two ends with I-41. Personally I am getting tired of all these routing changes. I just noticed a few months ago WI-74 is gone. I am thinking why now? Why not at least wait another year when the next edition of the state map comes out. The 2015-2016 edition is already out of date and it's still 2016. I don't get why it was even done away with at all in the first place. Nothing at least I am aware of has added as a state highway anywhere in the area. What's the trade off here?

The trade off is additional mileage for US 18 when it moves to the Les Paul Parkway. And because the village of Menominee Falls requested the removal.

And unless I'm missing something, the WI-74 removal was the first significant route change since the reroutes with the opening of the US-10 freeway between I-39 and Marshfield.  And that was...seven years ago? 

Has Wisconsin ever gone that long between changes in state highway numbering?

That was only like 3 years ago as far as I am concerned Wisconsin could go 50 years without any routing changes. Over the 35 years I have been alive there have been so many of them I can't even count. I see no reason tat they could not have at least waited until the time the next edition of the state map came out. The current one is already out of date after just being out a few months. What was the hurry? The US 18 change in Waukesha hasn't even started yet. I am boycotting this change by never driving on the old WI-74 ever.

Seems reasonable.   

[GeekJedi]

How is that even a trade off? The Les Paul Parkway is already a state highway with both WI-59 and WI-164. That's not even planned to happen for another 4 years why not wait until that happens and turn over WI-74? I still have doubts if that is even ever going to happen. It's been delayed like 25 times. The decommissioning of WI-74 was a very idiotic decommissioning in my opinion.

Bottom line: Menominee Falls asked WisDOT to decommission WI-74. An absolutely minor highway. Just like when Slinger asked WisDOT to remove WI-144 from downtown. Once you do that, you have a State highway that ends in the middle of nowhere. So, on what planet does it make sense to leave WI-74 alone? The village that it leads to doesn't want it, the state would rather not maintain it, and it's pretty much a local commuter route.

Boycott it all you want. It's easy enough to take the bajillion other roads within a mile of WI-74 that take you to the same place (Lannon Rd, County Line Rd, Pilgrim Rd, Town Hall Rd, etc., etc., etc.)

[dvferyance]

How is that even a trade off? The Les Paul Parkway is already a state highway with both WI-59 and WI-164. That's not even planned to happen for another 4 years why not wait until that happens and turn over WI-74? I still have doubts if that is even ever going to happen. It's been delayed like 25 times. The decommissioning of WI-74 was a very idiotic decommissioning in my opinion.

Bottom line: Menominee Falls asked WisDOT to decommission WI-74. An absolutely minor highway.

Yeah that's a good reason. Menominee Falls is the most crooked corrupt suburb in SE Wisconsin. If it's so minor then why was it ever state highway all these years in the first place?

[GeekJedi]

How is that even a trade off? The Les Paul Parkway is already a state highway with both WI-59 and WI-164. That's not even planned to happen for another 4 years why not wait until that happens and turn over WI-74? I still have doubts if that is even ever going to happen. It's been delayed like 25 times. The decommissioning of WI-74 was a very idiotic decommissioning in my opinion.

Bottom line: Menominee Falls asked WisDOT to decommission WI-74. An absolutely minor highway.

Yeah that's a good reason. Menominee Falls is the most crooked corrupt suburb in SE Wisconsin. If it's so minor then why was it ever state highway all these years in the first place?

That's actually an excellent reason. Can you give a better reason to keep it other than "it's always been that way".

Do tell me, what would be the purpose of keeping WI-74? Is it all the non-local traffic going from Waukesha to Menominee Falls? Is it because the road is more significant than the others around it?

Menominee Falls being "crooked and corrupt" (it's not) has nothing to do with whether or not it's a "good reason". Did you have the same opinion of Slinger when they requested that 144 be removed from Slinger? How about some of the other communities that have done the same thing over the years? Are they "crooked and corrupt" as well?

It's a road. Get over it.

[FightingIrish]

SH 74 was once a more important route. It originally was signed along Brown Deer Rd. all the way to near the lake. Then that portion was replaced by the SH 100 belt, and 74 was pushed west. I remember it running a straight E-W alignment from Menomonee Falls to SH 83. Then the part west of 164 (which originally ended at 74) was turned back to the county, and 74 started drifting south. 164 became an even more important route over time and 74 was truncated into pointlessness. It was inevitable that it would be turned over to local control.

As for another route, I'm surprised SH 24 is still on the state books. Just abruptly ends at the county line at one end and a co-termination at SH 241 at the other end.

[invincor]

There seems to be a cap on the total mileage of state highways that WisDOT will accept.  I know that locally, the two times the counties in my area have asked for a transfer of a county highway to state jurisdiction (that I'm aware of), WisDOT has answered they can only do so if the counties take some equivalent state highway mileage off their books. 

The first was in the late 1980s, when Pierce County asked that the two county highways that connected Prescott to Hager City be added to the state highway system.  Traffic counts had spiked on them in the few years previously after the Great River Road was routed onto them, after the rules about what roads it could be routed on were relaxed to able to include county highways.  WisDOT did allow it, but only after Pierce and Pepin counties agreed to take control of what had been WIS 183 further east, connecting Spring Valley to Pepin.  Today that's CTH-CC.  WIS 35 was rerouted onto the Hager City-Prescott section, where it joins briefly with US 10 and then onto WIS 29 to get it back to the rest of itself in River Falls.  Previously it had followed US 63 north from Hager City to Ellsworth, then was the solo highway from Ellsworth to River Falls.  That portion became a southern extension of WIS 65.  I know the county governments felt a bit screwed by this arrangement, as CTH-CC is actually several miles longer than the newer portion of WIS 35 is. 

Later on, in the 1990s, I know that St. Croix and Pierce counties asked the state about possibly taking on CTH F as a state highway, which parallels the St. Croix River (and the state line) between Hudson and Prescott.  Traffic counts along this road were (and still are) high enough to justify it being a state highway, and again, it seems a more logical routing for WIS 35 to keep it hugging the state line.  This time, they were turned down, as there was no state highway mileage in either county of equivalent length that the counties wanted to take on.  They also said the counties had allowed too much private driveway access along it, in excess of what is allowed on rural state highway, and before they could take it on, some of those driveways would have to be cut off. 

If such a move like that were to be made in the future, we'd need a new number for the 4-lane near-freeway WIS 35 currently occupies connecting Hudson to River Falls.  How does WIS-594 sound to everyone?   

[The Ghostbuster]

I've noticed the cap too. It seems like at some point, WISDOT set a maximum number of miles to the state highway system. In order to create a new highway or extend an existing one, mileage from another part of the state highway system must be taken away. Does anyone think my state's DOT did this because whatever the number is, is the maximum number of route miles the state can properly maintain?

[GeekJedi]

I've noticed the cap too. It seems like at some point, WISDOT set a maximum number of miles to the state highway system. In order to create a new highway or extend an existing one, mileage from another part of the state highway system must be taken away. Does anyone think my state's DOT did this because whatever the number is, is the maximum number of route miles the state can properly maintain?

If I'm not mistaken, the mileage of the highway system in Wisconsin is a matter of legislation. WisDOT can't exceed it. (I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I heard that was the case)

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Any idea what the cap is? In Minnesota I think it's 12,000; currently the existing trunk highway mileage is around 11,930 so not an overwhelmingly huge realm of space for movement, not that there are any huge things on MnDOT's list that would pose a problem at this time anyway.