Wisconsin to Begin Posting I-41 Signs
The sign-change process will run until November, WDOT spokesman Kim Rudat said .
The Federal Highway Administration gave final approval for the change earlier in April, capping a campaign begun 10 years ago to turn U.S. 41 into Interstate 41.
The conversion runs from the Illinois-Wisconsin state line north to the highway’s intersection with I-43 northwest of Green Bay, Rudat said.
U.S. 41 will remain as the name of the road’s extensions to the north — into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan — and south — to Terre Haute, Indiana.
The Milwaukee-Green Bay corridor is important for truck traffic, WDOT has said. While I-43 hugs the coast of Lake Michigan, the new I-41 runs parallel but inland through Fond du Lac, Oshkosh, Neenah and Appleton, Wisconsin.
Gov. Scott Walker said the change in designation “will stimulate economic opportunities from Milwaukee to Green Bay and beyond. Our interstate system is a critical part of our infrastructure, which fuels commerce, helps grow the economy and creates jobs,” Walker said in an April 8 statement.
Rudat said the designation change does not involve new construction as WDOT updated U.S. 41 to interstate standards in the 1990s.
The final regulatory issue to enable the change was accomplished in December, Rudat said, when Congress allowed Wisconsin to grandfather in heavy-haul permits of more than 80,000 pounds for trucks that have been using the road for years.
