Wisconsin notes

[SEWIGuy]

If the Madison US 151 reroute is approved I wonder if WISDOT will pursue getting rid of more state routes in urban areas? Milwaukee has quite a few and aren't even signed on Freeways in the Downtown Area. Wis 26 in Waupun would be an easy one. Wis 22 would make more sense to reroute onto Highland in Oconto Falls.

Counties in Notheast Wisconsin seem to be doing it too Outagamie Co. got rid of KK on John St and E on S Ballard Rd while Calumet got rid of LP in Menasha and F/Y in Chilton.

I think a significant factor is that Madison wanted this done to get US-151 off of Park Street. Are those other cities going to be interested in making such a deal?

[peterj920]

If the Madison US 151 reroute is approved I wonder if WISDOT will pursue getting rid of more state routes in urban areas? Milwaukee has quite a few and aren't even signed on Freeways in the Downtown Area. Wis 26 in Waupun would be an easy one. Wis 22 would make more sense to reroute onto Highland in Oconto Falls.

Counties in Notheast Wisconsin seem to be doing it too Outagamie Co. got rid of KK on John St and E on S Ballard Rd while Calumet got rid of LP in Menasha and F/Y in Chilton.

I think a significant factor is that Madison wanted this done to get US-151 off of Park Street. Are those other cities going to be interested in making such a deal?

They'd be interested if WISDOT pays to rebuild the road. In all these situations the road was rebuilt first. In Calumet/Outagamie Counties it was weird seeing the County detour signs only for the signs to disappear after the road opened.

[SEWIGuy]

If the Madison US 151 reroute is approved I wonder if WISDOT will pursue getting rid of more state routes in urban areas? Milwaukee has quite a few and aren't even signed on Freeways in the Downtown Area. Wis 26 in Waupun would be an easy one. Wis 22 would make more sense to reroute onto Highland in Oconto Falls.

Counties in Notheast Wisconsin seem to be doing it too Outagamie Co. got rid of KK on John St and E on S Ballard Rd while Calumet got rid of LP in Menasha and F/Y in Chilton.

I think a significant factor is that Madison wanted this done to get US-151 off of Park Street. Are those other cities going to be interested in making such a deal?

They'd be interested if WISDOT pays to rebuild the road. In all these situations the road was rebuilt first. In Calumet/Outagamie Counties it was weird seeing the County detour signs only for the signs to disappear after the road opened.

They might be. My guess is that it would be a case-by-case basis.

Regardless, I doubt they move WI-26 because that's multiple jurisdictions. However I could see WI-57 ending at WI-190 (Capitol Drive) at some point.

[peterj920]

Based on the bridge work in Green Bay this is the end of expoxy overlays on bridge decks?

I'm guessing this was another WISDOT lesson on how snowplows can ruin well intended projects by scraping them. In the early 2000s there were lane reflectors placed on freeways and expressways until WISDOT realized they have a short lifespan due to Wisconsin winters. That's also what the expoxy overlays fell victim to and that's why so many of them are peeling and have holes in them across the state.

[ET21]

Did my annual trip to Road America this past weekend. I-43 is so nice with most of the work done, though there was one short section on the SB side still getting worked on.

Will be curious how long it'll be before they make it 3 lanes to the Rt 57 Plymouth split

[The Ghostbuster]

Interstate 43 will probably not be expanded to six lanes north of STH 60 anytime soon, if it happens at all.

[JREwing78]

Based on the bridge work in Green Bay this is the end of expoxy overlays on bridge decks?

I'm guessing this was another WISDOT lesson on how snowplows can ruin well intended projects by scraping them. In the early 2000s there were lane reflectors placed on freeways and expressways until WISDOT realized they have a short lifespan due to Wisconsin winters. That's also what the expoxy overlays fell victim to and that's why so many of them are peeling and have holes in them across the state.

This works better if you lead in with what exactly you're talking about. I'm going to assume for the sake of discussion it's this project here: https://projects.511wi.gov/i41rehabbrwin/full-project-overview/

From how WisDOT describes the project, they're removing the old, worn epoxy overlay and replacing it with a new layer. That's not "the end of epoxy overlays" by a long shot. From the website:

Project improvements
This is a bridge preservation project. Project improvements include:

• Milling a portion of the deck, performing deck repairs, and overlaying with a polyester polymer concrete (PPC) overlay
  
  • Six interchange flyover ramp bridge overlays are in Brown County.
• Polymer overlay at the I-41 and US-45 system interchange ramp in Winnebago County.

It makes sense that they would want to remove/replace the overlay. These are in an area that can use a high-friction surface and enhanced protection from the elements. It's unfortunate that snowplows are tearing up the surface, but they do that all over the place, not just to epoxy overlays on bridges. 

They're pretty expensive, so of course they're not going to use them everywhere. But where they make sense (and the freeway ring around Green Bay is somewhere they make sense), WisDOT will continue their use - at least until something better comes along.

[JREwing78]

Did my annual trip to Road America this past weekend. I-43 is so nice with most of the work done, though there was one short section on the SB side still getting worked on.

Will be curious how long it'll be before they make it 3 lanes to the Rt 57 Plymouth split

Interstate 43 will probably not be expanded to six lanes north of STH 60 anytime soon, if it happens at all.

Probably correct. 

If/when this happens, the Hwy 57 interchange will likely be converted to a right-exit for Hwy 57 to meet modern standards (like the NBD -> WBD ramp from I-39/90 to US-12/18 near Madison).

The interchange at Hwy 33 would be a good candidate for a diverging-diamond interchange. Ditto Hwy 60. That's enough for a large-scale project, and it's at that point WisDOT will likely pull the trigger on 6-laning.

Currently, traffic counts drop to about 45,000 vpd north of Hwy 60, and then Hwy 57 takes a third of that traffic. Those numbers have only recently risen back to 2007 levels; traffic counts were considerably lower over most of the past 20 years. The 4-lane section north of Hwy 60 doesn't seem to be a major or dangerous restriction.