MILWAUKEE — Everybody’s noticed the construction on I-43, and it’s a bit annoying… but what’s it all about?
“Up and down the I-43 corridor, the public sees a lot of orange barrels and understandably so, they think it’s just one project,” says Wisconsin Dept. of Transportation’s Regional Communications Director, Dan Sellers. “You have the I-43 Brown St to Capitol Dr segment, which is rehabilitating old freeway pavement and bridges over the freeway. You have the I-43 URT Bridge project from Capital Dr to Hampton Ave area, and then the big I-43 North-South reconstruction project to the north from Silver Spring Dr up to Grafton.”
“They kind of all have the same goal and that’s focusing on improving safety, mobility and functionality,” Sellars continued. “They’re doing that by implementing auxiliary lanes between interchanges [which] kind of helps with merging and weaving traffic and improving some of these entrance and exit ramps and then just kind of modernizing the corridor to provide more of a safe and efficient transportation system.”
Milwaukee has grown, and the roads need to be able to handle that growth. That’s essentially why these projects are being done. The big question is, when will they be completed? Sellers assures us that it won’t be much longer.
“The good news is the URT Bridge project, the one in Glendale, that is looking to wrap up later this year, the Brown St to Capitol Dr segment is getting done in 2024 and then the 14-mile stretch of I-43 north, I think we’re looking to wrap that up in mid-2025,” Sellers said. “Our teams are doing a pretty good job of allowing that to happen and working together with our stakeholders to get them to where they need to go safely.”
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