DE PERE, Wis. (WFRV) – With construction for the I-41 expansion project set to begin in early March, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation is organizing community meetings for residents and business owners to have their questions answered.
“What’s the timeline, what to expect, because people have to rearrange their transportation on ways they’re going to go and have a plan in place,” meeting attendee Kim Ryan said at Hemlock Creek Elementary School.
The seven-year long project will add a third lane to each side of I-41, repave the surface and interchanges, as well as replace 11 over- and underpasses which will cause full overnight closures.
“[At these meetings residents] can prepare for what may lay ahead in terms of traffic impacts and then the years beyond,” WisDOT design project manager Scott Ebel said. “We really need to get some of these older bridges out of the way and reconstructed before we can do the work on the I-41 mainline underneath it.”
The first location that construction is set to begin at is at the Capitol Drive overpass in Appleton, and then Kaukauna’s CTH CC Rose Hill Road overpass will follow shortly after.
Even residents that live south of the construction route will still feel the effects of roadwork in just a few weeks. In early April the I-41 rehabilitation for Appleton and Neenah will begin, which stretches from WIS 115 to Breezewood Lane.
“It’s a good improvement, it’s a long time coming,” meeting attendee Raymond Diederich said. “I think some of the interchanges are going to make traffic a whole lot safer and better, and with the extra lane it’s really going to make it better.”
Members of the public have largely welcomed the expansion, as well as politicians.
“It’s a really great transformative improvement to northeast Wisconsin,” State Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Green Bay) said.
“We’re going to be able to expand commerce, reduce people’s commute times,” State Sen. Andre Jacque (R-De Pere) said.
According to Ebel, the most construction activity on I-41 at once will occur in 2027, and that is when the slowest commute times will take place.
Besides commute times and detours, the most discussed issue is the permanent noise barriers that are expected to be built in nine locations from Appleton to De Pere.
“Definitely been getting a lot of feedback on noise barriers and questions related to noise barriers with our noise barrier voting outreach process,” Ebel said. “The majority of votes are in favor of a particular barrier, and then that barrier will be built as part of the project.”
Residents that live within 500 feet of the interstate in areas that are considering a noise barrier have received a notification to vote on whether they are in favor of or opposed to the barrier in their area. Those nine potential barriers are all expected to be built as the majority of votes have been cast.
Ebel says that safety is the number priority of WisDOT, and it especially is during the construction season for both drivers and workers on the road.
“We really want to press home that message on safety, for people to slow down, buckle your seatbelts, pay attention to the cars around you,” Ebel said. “We want everyone to be getting home safe, to their families, to their loved ones, and really we want that for the workers on the highway projects as well.”
The final community meeting is Thursday, March 14 at 5 p.m. at Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton.
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