No longer a highway, Wisconsin’s 41 now an interstate

Vehicles travel down Highway 41 in West Bend recently. The former highway is now an interstate. (AP Photo/West Bend Daily News, John Ehlke)

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — No longer just a highway, U.S. 41 in eastern Wisconsin is now an interstate.

Gov. Scott Walker announced Thursday that the decade-long process of designating the highway as an interstate was complete with approval from the Federal Highway Administration.

I-41 begins at the I-94 interchange just south of the Illinois border and continues north to Milwaukee at the I-894 interchange north to Green Bay where it meets I-43 and ends.

Installation of 3,000 new signs will begin this summer and is expected to be completed by November.

Walker’s office says the interstate designation will encourage economic growth along the corridor, elevating its profile beyond just a regionally known freeway.