Michels Road & Stone awarded $95 million contract for I-41 project

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A Brownsville-based contractor has been awarded a more than $95.3 million contract for the Interstate 41 mainline in northeast Wisconsin.

Michels Road & Stone Inc. was awarded a contract on Feb. 17 to work on I-41 between North Lynndale Drive and Meade Street in Outagamie County, according to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. Gov. Tony Evers signed the contract on Feb. 26, part of the overall I-41 expansion project between Appleton and De Pere.

The project was executed when the governor signed the contract, a spokesperson for WisDOT said.

In early 2025, WisDOT started a $1.2 billion project to expand 23 miles of I-41 from four lanes to six between Outagamie and Brown counties. Project officials hope to be completed by 2029.

Michels will expand I-41 from four to six lanes between Lynndale Drive and Wisconsin Highway 47/Richmond Street and from four to eight lanes between WIS 47/Richmond Street and Meade Street in Outagamie County, according to WisDOT.

The WIS 47/Richmond Street interchange will be reconstructed to a diverging diamond interchange. Gillett Street will also be reconstructed under I-41.

Much of the highway pavement and several bridges between North Lynndale Drive and Meade Street are reaching the end of their lives and need to be replaced, as most of the original pavement in the corridor was built in the 1960s, according to WisDOT.

The project corridor also has narrow road shoulders, outdated ramp designs and interchanges spaced too closely to one another, that can contribute to safety and operational problems, officials said.

Construction in the I-41 mainline started in early 2025 at the WIS 96 interchange. It will continue east toward De Pere, and WisDOT has the final legs of the project scheduled for 2029 between Miners Way and County Road F in Brown County.