Question:
Several public information meetings will be held for residents along the corridor,
with the first such meeting to be held on May 20, 2004, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at
Northeast Wisconsin Technical College. A formal presentation will take place at 6
p.m.
"Now is the time for the community to learn more about the corridor and provide
input," added Fortney. "We are excited to be working with both local officials and
residents as we move forward in this process."
Answer:
I dropped some topographic maps off at the District 3 WisDOT
office last summer that were scribbled up to that effect.
Coincidence??? I think not.
Anyway, though, I fully agree with you, WI 172/54 between Green Bay and
Waupaca is a rapidly up-and-coming corridor. That 'T' intersection in
Hobart where WI 172 ends at WI 54 is NASTY, too. I have it listed in my
Wisconsin's Top-Ten road weaknesses list.
The ideas that I gave to WisDOT involve a full freeway running eastward
from a new south Seymour bypass to feed directly into WI 172. In Brown
County, I would build interchanges where it would go under Mason St
(existing WI 54) by the current WI 172 intersection, County 'GE', the
main GRB access road and Packerland Dr (County 'EB') with the GRB access
road intersection to become a 'SPUI' (the available WI 172 ROW there is
very narrow). In Outagamie County, I would build interchanges at County
'J', WI 55 (just west of where it would cross to the south side of
existing WI 54, after using it for a couple of klicks) and at County 'C'
on Seymour's south edge. West of there, it would be an 'expressway'
until it reconnects to the existing road a bit farther west.
The entire length of WI 172 would then become 'WI 54' with WI 54 then
continuing northward on I-43 and back to its existing route on the
city's northeast side. Similar but less intensive upgrades would
eventually continue westward on WI 54 all the way to Waupaca.
Mason St (Existing WI 54) in Brown County would also be redirected to
feed directly as a surface street into County 'E' into Outagamie County.