Off the Publisher’s Desk 8-27-2025

Doesn’t anyone stay home!
I have talked about my involvement with the Newspaper Museum at the Minnesota State Fair and this year is no different than previous years that I drove to the fairgrounds in St. Paul Thursday opening day.

Up at four a.m. and onto Interstate-94 at Wilson to travel to the fairgrounds. I thought that the traffic on the Interstate would be very light. Boy was I mistaken. I gave myself plenty to time to get to the fairgrounds parking lot just off of Larpenteur Avenue, where I had to wait for twenty minutes for the gates to open. If you are interested, in going to the fair, it’s $25.00 to park on the grounds plus $16.00 for your admission.

But the reason that I am writing about this is to talk about the amount of traffic on the Interstate that was bumper to bumper and when I got to the Hudson Bridge, it was nothing but headlights coming into Wisconsin from Minnesota. I was thinking, just how much traffic do our highways carry?

Checking the transportation department’s maps I got the following information.

The average daily traffic count crossing the St. Croix River bridge Is 82,400 vehicles. At highway 128 just north of the Interstate in Cady Township the traffic count is 3,200 and 128 at the fairgrounds in Glenwood City is 1,900.

Highway 170 at Downing carries some 2,500 vehicles daily, while highway 79 south of Boyceville has an average daily count of 2,100. At Knapp, Highway 12 has a count of 2,200 while Highway 40, which is Colfax’s Main Street carries some 4,000 vehicles while in Menomonie, Broadway at 17th Avenue has a count of 8,400.

Work is currently underway on I-94 in St. Croix County which includes a multiyear project replacing two sets of original I-94 bridges to improve safety.

According to a news release from the DOT the “structures built in 1958 over Kinney Road and 100th Street between Roberts and Hudson have reached the end of their service lives. Crews are replacing the four structures with new bridges that will be able to accommodate three lanes each if I-94 is expanded in the future”

“Because of the volume of traffic out there, it’s important to make sure roadway pavement and bridges are kept in conditions to handle it safely for motorists and promote commerce,” said Northwest Region Project Supervisor Nicole.

The westbound I-94 bridges are being replaced this year, and the eastbound structures will be replaced in 2026.
Currently scheduled is work on the bridges over the St. Croix River at Hudson with completion next year.

Locally, Highway 128 from Highway 12 in Springfield Township to Highway 170 in Glenwood City is scheduled for next year. The project includes recycling 3.75 inches of the existing asphaltic surface in rural sections of the project and pave 2.75 inches over the recycled pavement in the urban section of the highway. Milling approximately 3.25 inches of the existing asphaltic surface and pave with 3.25 inches of hot-mix asphalt. Over lay the deck of the bridge over Tiffany Creek in Glenwood City and update sidewalk curb ramps and place centerline rumble strips.

Another project that is planned for next year is replacing the existing pavement on Wisconsin 25 from the I-94 Bridge in Menomonie north to County D in the Town of Tainter. The DOT in a separate project in the future plans to build roundabouts at the north and south junctions of Highway 25 and County BB.

Thanks for reading! ~Carlton