Good news! WIS 172 in Brown County opening back up

July 28, 2009

All lanes and ramps to be open today Tuesday, July 28

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) Northeast Region in Green Bay is announcing good news for motorists who use WIS 172 in Brown County. The road will be completely re-opened by 4 p.m. on Tuesday, July 28. WIS 172 has seen lane reductions since February and on a few occasions was completely shut down. The ramp from US 41 northbound to WIS 172 eastbound will also be re-opened at this time.

Mike Berg, WisDOT NE Regional Director said,”On behalf of WisDOT and all the people who worked on the project, I want to say a big thank you to everyone who used extra caution when using this stretch of highway and finding alternate routes. It helped to keep things safe and enabled us to get the work done.”

WisDOT estimates that up to 70% of the motorists who normally drove that stretch of highway voluntarily found alternate routes during the project.

This marks the halfway point in a $37 million project that runs for 5.5 miles from US 41 to I-43.

The work includes the complete removal, replacement, widening, and overlay of bridge decks, concrete pavement repair, and complete resurfacing of east and westbound lanes. WisDOT is also upgrading the lighting, traffic signals, storm sewer, and curb and gutter.

Crews will be back next year during the same February to July time frame to finish the work. Unfortunately, this will include many of the same traffic impacts. However, this project is scheduled to be completed by September 2010, just in time for the start of the long awaited US 41 capacity expansion project. That project is scheduled to begin in fall 2010.

Motorists are cautioned that work will continue on WIS 172, but there should be no major traffic impacts on the highway.

For more information, contact:
Kim Rudat, Regional Communications Manager
(920) 492-5743, kim.rudat@dot.wi.gov