DE PERE, WI (WTAQ) – Brown County communities are building support for a new bridge crossing the Fox River.
Today, De Pere is expected to become the latest community to pass a resolution supporting one of three alternatives for a new Fox River bridge.
The county is weighing three options. Two of those options would connect between Rockland and Red Maple Roads. The third option would connect Scheuring and Heritage Roads.
Advocates for a second bridge crossing the Fox River in De Pere want state and federal officials to take a good look at the Claude Allouez Bridge.
“We have a safety concern,” said Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach. “It’s a state road, it’s a state bridge and we need to address it.”
The bridge has already surpassed 2020 traffic projections that were made when the bridge opened in 2007.
“It was built with the intent there would be a southern bridge,” said De Pere Mayor Mike Walsh.
Walsh says his city’s council will pass a resolution tonight supporting a new bridge at Rockland and Red Maple Roads with a new interchange at Interstate 41.
Streckenbach says other municipalities in the county, like Ashwaubenon and Ledgeview, have passed similar resolutions supporting the same plan. He hopes the support now can build to 2019; the year the county hopes to have funding secured and design work finalized.
Even if the funding is secured, county officials have acknowledged it could be 10 years or more before the bridge is ride ready.
