Existed: 1918 (1918) – present North end: WIS 42 in Sister Bay Tourist routes Lake Michigan Circle Tour South end WIS 59 in Milwaukee | South end: WIS 59 in Milwaukee Length 308.7 km North end WIS 42 in Sister Bay | |
Tourist
routes: Lake Michigan Circle Tour Counties Milwaukee County, Wisconsin | ||
Wisconsin Highway 57 (often called Highway 57, STH-57 or WIS 57) is a 191.82 miles (308.70 km) state highway in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It runs from its southern terminus at Wisconsin Highway 59 in Milwaukee to its northern terminus at Wisconsin Highway 42 in Sister Bay. Much of WIS 57 parallels the Interstate 43 corridor, and the highway is concurrent with I-43 for 12 miles (19 km) in Ozaukee County. Like most Wisconsin state highways, WIS 57 is maintained by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT).
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Map of WI-57, Wisconsin, USA
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 Interstate 43. WIS 57 is also a major route to the popular tourist destination of Door County; it is one of only two state highways to serve the county.
History
When the Wisconsin State Highway system was laid out in 1918, WIS 57 ran from Racine north to Milwaukee along a route that later became U.S. Route 41 and is now Wisconsin Highway 241. By 1921, WIS 57 had been significantly expanded. It was extended northward from Milwaukee to Green Bay along what is generally its present-day route and southward from Racine to the Illinois state line. WIS 57 grew even more in 1923, when the state extended the highway northward from Green Bay to the Michigan state line. However, WIS 57 did not keep this alignment for very long. In 1927, when the U.S. Highway System was established in Wisconsin, WIS 57 was shortened at both ends. The section between Green Bay and Michigan became U.S. Route 141, and the section south of Milwaukee became part of US 41.
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 Interstate 57 to preserve the highway's number; while this numbering would have fit in the west–east Interstate number scheme, an Interstate 57 was already planned in Illinois and Missouri. The state's proposal was ultimately rejected, and Interstate 43 was built on the US 141 corridor along the lakeshore instead.
WisDOT rerouted WIS 57 in south Ozaukee County during the early 1990s in response to local municipalities who complained about heavy traffic on the road. This realignment signed the highway along WIS 167 and Interstate 43 to avoid entering the downtown areas of Mequon, Thiensville, Grafton and Cedarburg. WIS 57's former routing became a municipal road. This realignment plan also turned WIS 143 over to the county and extended WIS 181 northward from WIS 167 to WIS 60.
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. This section had been a two-lane highway, but traffic during the vacation season caused long delays and made an expansion necessary. 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. The project began in 1999 when the interchange between WIS 54 and WIS 57 was rebuilt as Phase I of the project. Phase 2 widened WIS 57 to four lanes on the 8 miles (13 km) between WIS 54 and Dyckesville during 2002 and 2003. The first section of four-lane road officially opened on December 2, 2003. 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. The entire project was completed on October 6, 2008, when the last 11-mile (18 km) section near Sturgeon Bay was officially opened.
Special routes
Wisconsin Highway 57 has one special route, Wisconsin Business Highway 42/57 in Sturgeon Bay. Business Highway 42/57 is 3.55 miles (5.71 km) long 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, Business Highway 42/57 is locally maintained.
Business Route 42/57 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. 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. The bridge was closed to all traffic in July 2008 when structural problems were found in its supports, though it was reopened to light traffic after two days. It was again closed to all traffic when the Maple and Oregon Streets Bridge opened in September 2008, and Business Highway 42/57 was rerouted over this bridge.