Feds OK "Interstate 41" number

GREEN BAY - A federal agency has approved the numbering "Interstate 41" but there are still hurdles to overcome before U.S. 41 from Green Bay to the Wisconsin/Illinois border is renamed.

Plans call for the 175-mile stretch of highway to be designated as interstate, with signs expected to be changed in 2014, according to Kim Rudat with the Wisconsin Dept. of Transportation.

The state requested the highway be called I-41, which an industry group endorsed last month. Now, the Federal Highway Administration has told the state once the overall project has been approved, it is OK with the I-41 designation, Rudat said.

There still needs to be a federal environmental review of the project. The scope of that review has not been determined, he said.

Beyond FHA approval, Rudat says there is another issue which has to be settled before the state will proceed with the conversion to interstate status: weight limits.

The current designation as a U.S. highway allows trucks with greater weight limits than what an interstate would permit. Congress needs to act to grandfather the highway - and there is no timetable for that, Rudat said.

Government and business officials have said the interstate designation could help increase and attract business along the corridor.

About $12 million will be needed for the new signs along the 175-mile corridor - mostly for signs directing people to the interstate at and near interchanges. The north end of Interstate 41 would be in Green Bay at the 41/43 interchange, and end at Russell Road in Illinois, where U.S. 41 and I-94 hookup just south of the border.

Other number options once considered included I-47, I-594 and I-643.

The interstate designation project is separate from road construction projects currently going on in Brown and Winnebago counties.