State Trunk Highway 78 (often called Highway 78, STH-78 or WIS 78) is a
state highway
A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...
in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
of
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
. It runs north–south in south central Wisconsin from
Portage
Portage or portaging (Canada: ; ) is the practice of carrying water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river, or between two bodies of water. A path where items are regularly carried between bodies of water is also called a ...
to the Illinois border near
Gratiot.
History
In the 1920s, Highway 78 was originally located on the
Door County Peninsula on what is now
Highway 57.
In 1963, the segment of STH-78 from the new I-90/I-94 freeway interchange south of Portage northerly to
Highway 33 was improved to a four-lane divided facility. A year later, this four-lane divided highway (and the STH-78 designation with it) was extended northerly across the Wisconsin River then bypassing Portage to the west before merging into the existing two-lane route of
US 51
U.S. Route 51 or U.S. Highway 51 (US 51) is a major south-north United States highway that extends from the western suburbs of New Orleans, Louisiana, to within of the Wisconsin–Michigan state line. As most of the United States Numbered Highw ...
north of the city. The entire four-lane divided portion of STH-78 from I-90/I-94 northerly to US-51 was shown as a full freeway with interchange beginning with the 1966 official state highway map, so it can be assumed the conversion to freeway occurred about this time (c.1965). In more recent decades, the short segment of STH-78 freeway was the only portion of the route from I-90/I-94 at Portage northerly past Wausau that was not signed as part of US-51, although signs along the route did indicate "TO US-51." Then in 1996, US-51 from Rothschild (south of Wausau) southerly to Portage was concurrently designated as
Interstate 39
Interstate 39 (I-39) is a highway in the Midwestern United States. I-39 runs from Normal, Illinois, at I-55 to State Trunk Highway 29 (WIS 29) in the town of Rib Mountain, Wisconsin, which is approximately south of Wausau. I- ...
and to connect this new Interstate route with nearby I-90/I-94, the entire STH-78 freeway from US-51 north of Portage to I-90/I-94 was redesignated as part of I-39, with STH-78 losing approximately eight miles of length in the process.
Major intersections
See also
*
References
External links
*{{Commons category-inline, Wisconsin Highway 78
078
Transportation in Lafayette County, Wisconsin
Transportation in Iowa County, Wisconsin
Transportation in Green County, Wisconsin
Transportation in Dane County, Wisconsin
Transportation in Sauk County, Wisconsin
Transportation in Columbia County, Wisconsin