State Trunk Highway 15 (STH-15, commonly known as Highway 15 or WIS 15) 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 ...

Outagamie County Outagamie County is a county in the northeast region of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 190,705. Its county seat is Appleton. Outagamie County is included in the Appleton, WI Metropolitan Statistical Are ...

in the US state 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 ...

that runs east–west and provides a shortcut to Appleton from U.S. Highway 45 (US 45) for travelers inbound from points north and west. Most of WIS 15 was once part of US 45, which was redirected south of

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to bypass Appleton and provide direct access to Oshkosh and points south.

Route description

WIS 15 begins at the junction of US 45 and County Trunk Highway T (CTH-T) in the Town of Hortonia (just southeast of New London) as a two-lane road and heads southeast to Hortonville. The route then continues southeast into Greenville where it becomes a multilane expressway just northwest of the

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

. The highway intersects WIS 76 in Greenville then continues southeast for before turning east at the junction with CTH-CB. WIS 15 then junctions with US 41 where it ends and Northland Avenue and CTH-OO begins in the Town of Grand Chute, just northwest of Appleton. The route between US 45 and Industrial Park Avenue west of Hortonville and from Greendale Road east of Hortonville to Julius Drive west of Greenville now has centerline rumble strips. WIS 15 provides access to Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium.

History

Wisconsin Highway 15 West Terminus looking East

This is the third iteration of the route number. The first iteration followed present day US 41 from the

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

border to Marinette via

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

, Fond du Lac, Appleton and Green Bay. The second is the more well-known alignment following the present day

Interstate 43 Interstate 43 (I-43) is a Interstate Highway located entirely within the US state of Wisconsin, connecting I-39/ I-90 in Beloit with Milwaukee and I-41, U.S. Highway 41 (US 41) and US 141 in Green Bay. State Trunk Highway ...

(I-43) from the

Hale Interchange The Hale Interchange is the major interchange between Interstate 41 (I-41), I-43, I-894, US Highway 41 (US 41), and US 45 in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, southwest suburb of Greenfield, though it takes it name from the nearby comm ...

in Milwaukee to

I-90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, Great Plains, Midwest, and ...

in Beloit as the Rock Freeway. From the Hale Interchange, this iteration followed I-894 northward then turned east onto National Avenue and ending in downtown Milwaukee. Previously, the current WIS 15 route was US 45—which turned south at its intersection with WIS 76. The later highway continued straight on to intersect with Wisconsin Avenue (then US 10) at the north entrance road to the Fox River Mall in Appleton. The road was realigned as part of a large project that realigned US 10 and US 45. Essentially, the road south of Greenville became an extension of WIS 76 and WIS 15 is now the sole route number on the current stretch.

Future

The highway is currently being studied for expansion by the

Wisconsin Department of Transportation The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) is a governmental agency of the U.S. state of Wisconsin responsible for planning, building and maintaining the state's highways. It is also responsible for planning transportation in the state ...

(WisDOT). This includes possible bypass options of Hortonville and capacity expansion. The limits of the study are from US 45 in New London to WIS 76 in Greenville (where the current multilane expressway begins)

Major intersections

References

External links