BROWN COUNTY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A Brown County project that has been talked about for at least 54 years appears to be on the verge of receiving the necessary funding.
State officials tell FOX 11 that key stakeholders for the southern bridge project are expected to get more information in the coming days.
Getting the funding to build the bridge has been the top priority in recent years for Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach.
“This ultimately impacts seven different municipalities in Brown County, so we’re really optimistic we’re getting closer to having that bridge actually constructed and hopefully before 2030,” said Streckenbach.
A major reason for optimism is Department of Transportation Secretary Craig Thompson asked for $50 million to build the bridge in his request for the next two-year state budget.
It comes on the heels of Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s April announcement of $5 million for the project.
An interchange from Highway 41 to connect to the bridge is expected to start being built in 2025. It’s part of the project to expand Interstate-41 to six lanes.
Streckenbach tells FOX 11 the fact that the engineering and design work continues with help from the state is another reason for the positive outlook.
“We know one thing for sure: if you’re not shovel ready and if you don’t have engineering/design work completed, you’re not even competing. You might as well give up. You might as well save your time and go work on something else.”
Republican State Sen. Andre Jacque says the winner of next month’s governor’s race likely won’t have much impact on whether the money will be included in the next state budget.
“Certainly, I think this is something people of all partisan stripes are strongly behind in terms of the coalition, pushing behind the project. This has to be something that doesn’t get lost in looking at the mega projects down in the southeast Wisconsin area.”
If the state or federal government provides the bulk of the money to build the bridge, Streckenbach says the county will be able to provide the rest, which he expects to be $10 million or $20 million. He says this project is the main reason the county board extended the half percent sales tax in August.
“In the end, we showed skin in the game — we show that our paperwork and design work is ready to go,” said Streckenbach. “It makes us very competitive to be able to go after those dollars.”
As for the I-41 expansion project, construction is expected to start next year.
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