Plans for the Interstate 41 expansion in the Fox Valley are displayed at the Wisconsin Department of Transportation office in Ashwaubenon March 2, 2023. PC: Fox 11 Online
APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Drivers in the Fox Valley will be traveling on the left side of several roads in the coming years.
The Interstate 41 expansion project will include three new intersections to Appleton.
The diverging diamond interchanges are meant to help high left-turn volumes, in hopes to decrease crashes.
It’s been almost five years since the Oneida Street/Highway 10-441 interchange was reconstructed into a diverging diamond interchange. Back in 2018, it was the state’s second interchange of this type. Now, there are four.
Two are in Janesville and one is in Beloit. But soon, Appleton will be home to three more.
The new interchanges will be constructed at the following locations:
- WIS 15/County OO (Northland Avenue) Interchange
- WIS 47 (Richmond Street) Interchange
- County E (Ballard Road) Interchange
Oneida Street’s diverging diamond is the first such interchange in the area.
“It had to deal with the location type, the amount of traffic that we see in that area and the amount of volumes that is entering the highway at this point,” said Mason Simmons, a traffic engineer for Wisconsin’s DOT.
According to Wisconsin DOT, these interchanges have been shown to increase capacity and safety, and decrease congestion.
Simmons says it’s done just that.
“We’ve seen about a 40% decrease in total injury crashes at that location since it’s been open,” said Simmons.
In the 5 years before the DDI opened on Oneida, there were 47 crashes with 15 injuries.
In the 4 years since the DDI opened, there have been 22 crashes with 7 injuries.
“The reason we ended up selecting the diverging diamond interchanges for the Highway 15, Highway 47 and County Highway E interchanges, is because these interchanges have high volumes of traffic,” said Scott Ebel, the I-41 Project Design Manager.
He says these interchanges also have high volumes of traffic entering on the freeway.
“Particularly making that left hand turn entrance on to the freeway, and again, the diverging diamond interchange is particularly good at accommodating that movement,” said Ebel.
Unlike Oneida’s interchange which is an underpass, the three new ones will be overpasses.
“And that really has to do with just the interchange is set up today,” said Ebel. “The diverging diamond works just as well whether in that’s in the over condition or the under condition.”
Something different about the interchange is diverging diamonds make drivers cross over, and drive on the left side of the road.
“At first it was just kind of worrisome because of intersecting, going on the opposite side, but it’s fine,” said Tom Rhode, an Appleton resident.
He says he’s got the hang of it now.
“It makes it a lot easier here because you’re right there, you don’t have to cross traffic, it makes sense,” said Rhode.
Back in 2018, a few were wondering why not just put in another commonly used roundabout?
But now, some of those opinions have changed.
“If you can handle the roundabouts, you can handle this. Roundabouts are worse than this,” said Rhode.
Abbie Hall lives near the diverging diamond and she agrees.
“I think that this is a little bit more easier,” said Hall.
The I-41 expansion project is expected to start next year.
In the current schedule, the earliest the DOT would be constructing those diverging diamond interchanges will be in 2025.
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