DE PERE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – More than 200 southern Brown County residents gathered Wednesday night for an update on the long-anticipated bridge for the area.
A standing-room-only crowd formed inside Altmayer Elementary School, many people anxious for answers on where things stand for the ‘southern bridge’ that was first brought up in 1968.
“It’s been back and forth, back and forth, and there’s no real resolution to it,” said Dave Prust of De Pere.
Brown County Principal Planner Cole Runge told the crowd environmental study work is resuming, after a 7-year break, to determine where the bridge should go.
Runge tells FOX 11…
“The exciting part is the environmental study phase is actually a project development process, so we’re actually in the process, believe it or not, of beginning to develop a project that we hope to do very soon.”
While Runge wouldn’t confirm it, county officials have said the preferred location for the bridge is at Rockland and Red Maple Roads. Runge says putting the bridge between Scheuring and Heritage Roads is the only viable alternative.
“What we want to do among other things is by October of next year identify the general location of a southern bridge corridor.”.
If that happens and the bridge gets federal approval, the state has said it will pay for the design and construction of a bypass between the new bridge and I-41.
“It’s always been a wrestle with state and federal money as far as the county and who is going to finance it and stuff,” said Bob Coenen, chair of the Town of Rockland’s plan commission. “It’s about time they upgrade in this area.”
While the state would pay for the interchange, the county still needs to come up with the funding for the bridge. Early estimates put the cost between $25 and $40 million.
There isn’t a timeline for building the bridge, however, the county had an example schedule at the meeting that showed it could start in 2030.
The interchange work would coincide with the I-41 expansion between De Pere and the Fox Valley. That’s expected to start in 20-25.
