Wisconsin Highway 57
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Major junctions | ||||
South end | WIS 59 in Milwaukee | |||
North end | WIS 42 in Sister Bay | |||
Location | ||||
Country | United States | |||
State | Wisconsin | |||
Counties | Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Sheboygan, Manitowoc, Calumet, Brown, Kewaunee, Door | |||
Highway system | ||||
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Wisconsin Highway 57 (often called Highway 57, STH-57 or WIS 57) is a 191.82-mile-long (308.70 km)
WIS 57 serves as a major highway in eastern Wisconsin, and it was originally designed to connect the major cities of Milwaukee and Green Bay as well as several other large cities along its corridor. The state of Wisconsin proposed that the WIS 57 route become an Interstate Highway corridor when the Interstate Highway System was planned in the 1950s; the state's plan was rejected in favor of the current routing of I-43, though it remains a popular and marked alternate route for both I-43 and I-41 to the west. WIS 57 is also a major route to the tourist area of Door County; it is one of only two state highways to serve the county with WIS 42.[3]
Route description
Milwaukee to De Pere
WIS 57 begins at WIS 59 (National Avenue) in Milwaukee and continues north as Layton Boulevard until just south of
In Ozaukee County, WIS 57 turns right onto
Entering Manitowoc County, WIS 32/57 expands back into an expressway all the way until
WIS 96 is the first state highway to be crossed by WIS 32/57 in Brown County, connecting to Appleton and Wrightstown to the west while hooking to I-43 in Denmark to the east. WIS 32/57 enters De Pere from the south and crosses over an incomplete interchange with County Highway PP and regaining two lanes in each direction.[4][5]
De Pere to Sister Bay
Entering the downtown district, WIS 32 leaves WIS 57 for
Sturgeon Bay and northern Door County
While heading towards Sturgeon Bay, WIS 57 intersects with CTH-C. It continues to
History
When the Wisconsin State Highway system was laid out in 1918, WIS 57 ran from
WIS 57 replaced WIS 78 in the Door Peninsula in 1930, reaching its present-day terminus in Sister Bay. This routing from Milwaukee to Sister Bay stayed mostly the same until the 1990s, with a few minor exceptions. WIS 57 was rerouted onto its current alignment between Hilbert and Askeaton in 1932, replacing a former routing to Hollandtown; the original routing was replaced by county roads. The highway was also realigned between Plymouth and Kiel in 1956, and the former route became part of WIS 67.
When the federal government was planning the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s, Wisconsin proposed that the WIS 57 corridor become the route of an Interstate Highway. The state wanted an Interstate to connect Milwaukee and Green Bay, two of Wisconsin's largest cities. Their plan chose the WIS 57 route over the nearby US 41 and US 141 corridors; the state did not want the Interstate's route to favor either the port cities of Manitowoc and Sheboygan or the inland cities of Appleton, Fond du Lac and Oshkosh. Wisconsin wanted to designate the highway as I-57 to preserve the highway's number; while this numbering would have fit in the west–east Interstate number scheme, an I-57 was already planned in Illinois and Missouri. The state's proposal was ultimately rejected, and I-43 was built on the US 141 corridor along the lakeshore instead.[1] The US 41 corridor eventually became I-41 in 2015, providing Interstate access to all the cities the WIS 57 routing would not have favored.
WisDOT rerouted WIS 57 in south
A WisDOT project rebuilt and widened the stretch of WIS 57 between WIS 54 and WIS 42, between Sturgeon Bay and Green Bay, a primary route to the Door Peninsula, to four lanes between 1999 and 2008.[7] This section had been a two-lane highway, but traffic during the vacation season caused long delays and made an expansion necessary.[8] The heavy traffic also resulted in the deaths of eighteen people on this section between 1994 and 1997, earning the highway the nickname "Bloody Route 57" among locals.[8] The results of extensive archeological excavations made in connection with the project are detailed along with a discussion of the highway expansion in informational kiosks at the CTH-C park and ride lot in Door County and at Wequiock Falls in Brown County.[9] The project began in 1999 when the interchange between WIS 54 and WIS 57 was rebuilt as Phase I of the project.[10] Phase 2 widened WIS 57 to four lanes on the 8 miles (13 km) between WIS 54 and Dyckesville during 2002 and 2003.[11] The first section of four-lane road officially opened on December 2, 2003.[12] WisDOT then began Phase 3 of the project, which widened the rest of the highway through the WIS 42 junction. The first part of this phase, a 6-mile (9.7 km) bypass of Dyckesville that reached the Door-Kewaunee county line, opened on December 1, 2006.[13] The entire project was completed on October 6, 2008, when the last 11-mile (18 km) section near Sturgeon Bay was officially opened.[14]
Major intersections
County | Location | mi[15][16] | km | Exit | Destinations | Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Milwaukee | 0.0 | 0.0 | WIS 59 | |||||
0.8 | 1.3 | I-94 | Access to I-94 via St. Paul Avenue | |||||
1.5 | 2.4 | US 18 west | Southern end of concurrency with US 18 | |||||
2.2 | 3.5 | US 18 east | Northern end of concurrency with US 18 | |||||
3.1 | 5.0 | WIS 145 south | Southern end of concurrency with WIS 145 | |||||
3.4 | 5.5 | WIS 145 north | Northern end of concurrency with WIS 145 | |||||
6.2 | 10.0 | WIS 190 – Pewaukee | ||||||
6.3 | 10.1 | I-43 south | Northbound entrance ramp can be accessed via WIS 190 and 7th Street | |||||
Brown Deer | 13.0 | 20.9 | — | WIS 100 – Wauwatosa | Former Interchange | |||
Ozaukee | Thiensville | 16.2 | 26.1 | WIS 167 west – Holy Hill | Southern end of concurrency with WIS 167 | |||
19.3 | 31.1 | 85 | LMCT | Southern end of concurrency with I-43 and WIS 32; northern end of concurrency with WIS 167 | ||||
Town of Grafton | 89 | CTH-C – Cedarburg | ||||||
Ulao | 26.2 | 42.2 | 92 | WIS 60 west – Cedarburg | ||||
LMCT – Port Washington, Grafton | Northern end of concurrency with WIS 32 | |||||||
Saukville | 30.7 | 49.4 | 96 | WIS 33 – Saukville, Port Washington | ||||
31.5 | 50.7 | I-43 north | Northbound exit and southbound entrance; northern end of concurrency with I-43 | |||||
Sheboygan | Random Lake | 43.3 | 69.7 | WIS 144 west – West Bend | ||||
Waldo | 50.9 | 81.9 | WIS 28 south – Kewaskum | Southern end of concurrency with WIS 28 | ||||
51.4 | 82.7 | WIS 28 north – Sheboygan | Northern end of concurrency with WIS 28 | |||||
Plymouth | 56.6 | 91.1 | WIS 23 – Fond du Lac, Sheboygan | |||||
Manitowoc | Millhome | 66.2 | 106.5 | WIS 32 south | Southern end of concurrency with WIS 32 | |||
Kiel | 69.8 | 112.3 | WIS 67 | Roundabout | ||||
Calumet | Chilton | 81.0 | 130.4 | US 151 north – Manitowoc | Southern end of concurrency with US 151 | |||
81.8 | 131.6 | US 151 south – Fond du Lac, Madison | Northern end of concurrency with US 151 | |||||
Hilbert | 89.4 | 143.9 | WIS 114 west – Neenah | |||||
Forest Junction | 94.5 | 152.1 | US 10 | Roundabout | ||||
Brown | Greenleaf | 102.3 | 164.6 | WIS 96 – Wrightstown, Denmark | Roundabout | |||
De Pere | — | CTH-PP south (Broadway Street) – Reedsville | Southbound exit and northbound entrance | |||||
112.1 | 180.4 | WIS 32 north (Main Avenue) | Northern end of concurrency with WIS 32 | |||||
Allouez | 114.4 | 184.1 | WIS 172 – Hobart | |||||
Green Bay | 116.9 | 188.1 | WIS 54 west | Southern end of concurrency with WIS 54 | ||||
117.4 | 188.9 | WIS 29 west – Shawano | Southern end of concurrency with WIS 29 | |||||
117.7 | 189.4 | US 141 east / WIS 29 | Northern end of concurrency with WIS 29 | |||||
120.6 | 194.1 | — | Milwaukee | Southwestern end of freeway | ||||
— | University Avenue; Nicolet Drive | |||||||
— | CTH-EA (Huron Road/Bay Settlement Road) | |||||||
125.1 | 201.3 | — | WIS 54 east / CTH-I west – Algoma, Luxemburg | Northern end of concurrency with WIS 54, northeastern end of freeway, southern end of Expressway | ||||
Town of Green Bay | — | CTH-P south / CTH-DK north – Dyckesville | ||||||
Kewaunee |
No major junctions | |||||||
LMCT – Algoma | Southern end of concurrency with WIS 42 | |||||||
Bus. WIS 57 | Northbound exit and southbound entrance | |||||||
Bridge over Sturgeon Bay | ||||||||
163.5 | 263.1 | Bus. WIS 57 | Roundabout | |||||
LMCT – Egg Harbor, Fish Creek | Northern end of concurrency with WIS 42 | |||||||
LMCT – Ephraim, Ellison Bay | ||||||||
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi
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Special route
Location | Sturgeon Bay |
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Length | 3.55 mi[17] (5.71 km) |
Existed | c. 1977[17]–present |
Business State Trunk Highway 57 (Bus. WIS 57) in Sturgeon Bay, which runs concurrently with Bus. WIS 42, is 3.55 miles (5.71 km) long[17] and connects to downtown Sturgeon Bay, which WIS 42 and WIS 57 bypass. It is cosigned as a business route of both WIS 42 and WIS 57 because it splits off of the concurrency of the two highways at both of its ends. Like most auxiliary state highways in Wisconsin, Bus. WIS /Bus. WIS 57 is locally maintained.
Bus. WIS /Bus. WIS 57 crossed Sturgeon Bay via the Michigan Street Bridge, a historic drawbridge near downtown Sturgeon Bay, until September 2008. This bridge was built in 1930 and is 1,420 feet (430 m) long.[18] The bridge is one of only three crossings of Sturgeon Bay, the others being the WIS 42/WIS 57 bridge and the recently opened Maple and Oregon Streets Bridge. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 17, 2008.[19] The bridge was closed to all traffic in July 2008 after the Wisconsin Department of Transportation stated that the weight limit was not being enforced, though it was reopened to light traffic after two days.[20] It was again closed to all traffic when the Maple and Oregon Streets Bridge opened in September 2008, and Bus. WIS /Bus. WIS 57 was expanded over this bridge while the older bridge was repaired.[21]
See also
- Door County Coastal Byway (WIS 57 north of Sturgeon Bay to Northport is classified as a Wisconsin Scenic Byway[22] and National Scenic Byway.[23])
References
- ^ a b Bessert, Christopher J. "Highways 50–59". Wisconsin Highways. Retrieved March 20, 2007.[self-published source]
- ^ a b Bauer, Kurt W. (March 1969). "Map 5: Original State Trunk Highway System in Wisconsin 1918" (Map). A Jurisdictional Highway System Plan For Milwaukee County. Southeast Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission. Retrieved January 10, 2008 – via Midwest Roads.
- ^ Wisconsin Department of Transportation (January 2021). Door Co. (PDF) (Map). 1:100,000. Madison: Wisconsin Department of Transportation. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 2, 2021. Retrieved June 17, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f Wisconsin Department of Transportation (2019). Official State Highway Map (PDF) (Map) (2019–2020 ed.). 1:823,680. Madison: Wisconsin Department of Transportation.
- ^ a b c d e f Google (September 1, 2022). "Overview Map of WIS 57" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved September 1, 2022.
- Milwaukee Journal.
- ^ "WIS 57 Expansion Project". Wisconsin Department of Transportation. Archived from the original on May 5, 2008. Retrieved May 11, 2008.
- ^ a b Jones, Meg (September 14, 1997). "Heavy Traffic, 2 Lanes to Door a Fatal Mix: Those Who've Lost Kin to Highway 57 Say Widening Can't Come Too Soon". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
- ^ STH 57 Reconstruction Project: Brown, Kewaunee and Door Counties, Wisconsin (PDF). University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
- ^ Walters, Steven (June 6, 1998). "Road Projects in Northeast Wisconsin Get Lift: Tax Money to Allow Faster Completion of Highway 57 Work, Governor Announces". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
- ^ Brinkmann, Paul (May 5, 2003). "Wis. 57 Project Will Widen Road, Lengthen Drive". Green Bay Press-Gazette.
- ^ Brinkmann, Paul (December 3, 2003). "Widened Stretch of 57 Opens Today for Traffic". Green Bay Press-Gazette.
- ^ Green Bay Press-Gazette Staff (December 1, 2006). "Wis. 57 Bypass Project Completed". Green Bay Press-Gazette.
- ^ Bintz, Ramelle (October 7, 2008). "Final Piece of Four-Lane Road to Door Co. Opens". Green Bay Press-Gazette.
- ^ Google (December 13, 2010). "Overview Map of Wisconsin Highway 57 between Milwaukee and Hilbert" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved December 13, 2010.
- ^ Google (December 13, 2010). "Overview Map of Wisconsin Highway 57 between Hilbert and Sister Bay" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved December 13, 2010.
- ^ a b c Bessert, Christopher J. "Business Connections". Wisconsin Highways. Retrieved November 3, 2008.[self-published source]
- ^ "Sturgeon Bay bridge projects". Wisconsin Department of Transportation. Archived from the original on June 3, 2008. Retrieved November 3, 2008.
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- ^ "Safety Concerns on Sturgeon Bay Bridge". WPR News. Wisconsin Public Radio. July 23, 2008. Retrieved June 17, 2022.
- ^ Kubisiak, Kristen (September 22, 2008). "Residents Come Out to Give Bridge a Test Drive". Green Bay Press-Gazette.
- ^ Door County Visitor Bureau (n.d.). "Welcome to the Door County Coastal Byway" (PDF) (Map). Door County Coastal Byway: A Wisconsin Scenic Byway. Door County Visitor Bureau. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 5, 2016.
- ^ Peterson, Eric (June 17, 2021). "Door County dedicates National Scenic Byway designation". Green Bay, Wisconsin: WLUK-TV.
External links
- Media related to Wisconsin Highway 57 at Wikimedia Commons
- WIS 54/57 @ Nicolet Dr/University Ave. traffic camera from the Wisconsin DOT
- WIS 57 Project: Public Interpretation, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee