APPLETON - The expansion of Interstate 41 between Appleton and De Pere is scheduled to begin in 2025 and be completed in 2029.

Appleton Public Works Director Paula Vandehey announced the schedule after meeting with officials from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation last week.

"They are very enthusiastic about this project, and they have a green light to go," Vandehey told Appleton's Municipal Services Committee on Monday.

The expansion project will stretch 23.6 miles between State 96 (Wisconsin Avenue) in Grand Chute and Scheuring Road in De Pere. It will widen the highway from two lanes to three lanes in each direction to reduce congestion and crash rates.

"That's the gap that's left that's two lanes," DOT Regional Communications Manager Mark Kantola told The Post-Crescent. "Once we widen that, it will be three lanes all the way from Green Bay to Oshkosh."

Money to start the project was included in the 2019-21 state budget.

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Vandehey said the DOT will conduct environmental studies from 2020 to 2022, purchase right of way and complete the design and engineering from 2023 to 2024 and construct the improvements from 2025 to 2029.

"(It's) good news for anyone who gets stuck out on 41 just about every day," she said.

Alderwoman Patti Coenen agreed, though she noted the completion date is still a decade away.

"At least they have something in place," Coenen said. "It's a bad stretch of highway. Anybody who drives it with the two lanes, it's very difficult."

Vandehey said the I-41 expansion has been classified as a major project by DOT officials and should hold its place against other projects competing for funding.

"Their feeling is there is no project that's going to have a higher priority and that's going to bump this," Vandehey said.

Grand Chute police said there were 890 crashes on the stretch of I-41 near Appleton and Grand Chute between August 2016 and September 2018. In the same period, police recorded more than 4,700 traffic incidents, including 907 reports of reckless drivers.

Contact Duke Behnke at 920-993-7176 or dbehnke@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DukeBehnke.