Wisconsin Roads - I-43

I-43


All photos except one are northbound.


Alternate I-39 clearly continues past Exit 2 on I-43, getting farther away from I-39 with every passing mile. There's also no signage for Alternate I-90, which is an oversight plain and simple because the route heads up WIS 140 back toward Janesville. (Although unsigned, one conceivable long-distance alternate route would take I-43, US 41, and US 10 up to Stevens Point, but that would mislead more people than it would help.)

Way too much space saving, even inside the shields.


This tunnel grabs whatever traffic made it through the Milwaukee freeway loop and shoves it into downtown on Kilbourn Ave. It's a neat tunnel that's way older than the facade along the newly redone I-43, but here's one reason why you absolutely have to take it:


This. Whoa. Whoaaaaa. That guide sign must date to when the freeway opened. It comes up fairly quickly, but you can see it (barely) at the back of the previous tunnel photo, so take your time to prepare and try to ignore the honking as you set up your shot.


Back onto I-43, where the overhead street signs were done to try to match the color of the decorative concrete.


No, I'm not on Brown Deer Rd., this is just a poorly attempted sign. Diagrammatics aren't even meant for this situation, since lanes aren't being dropped or split. From a freeway perspective, you just have one exit for Brown Deer and one for WIS 100, so that's all that needs to be signed.


After Exit 82, I-43 picks up a tattooed friend and everyone suddenly wants to hang out with them. For an explanation of why there are red arrows on every WIS 32 shield, see the page linked below. (It's not a long explanation, but why repeat it?)


I-43 is supposed to drop WIS 32 off here at Exit 113, but apparently not this time. Surprisingly, even the detour shield has red arrows, as if there's a statewide law requiring the number 32 to always appear decorated.

The only SB sign on the page; trust me, it's button copy.


More button copy, and an unfortunate choice of place name that should have been changed when politically expedient. Who is St. Nazianz, the patron saint of Germanic ants? Are they all white ants with blue eyes? Do they all hail the master queen with a three-armed salute? Do they persecute ants that worship a different ant god?


Up the Exit 149 offramp in Manitowoc. The "Business" banner is newer than the others; WIS 42 itself once went both ways here, but now gets onto I-43 for one exit north to bypass downtown.


Still gregarious after WIS 32, I-43 tries out a couple of partners, but isn't convinced.


Single once more, I-43 presses onward to Green Bay, grabs some button copy, and crosses the Fox River Bridge (since named after Leo Frigo).

An ugly and very pointy shield.


Wisconsin dislikes wide shields, so two 1's are the perfect excuse to avoid putting one here. Wisconsin also dislikes black borders on its EXIT ONLY panels, or putting the right arrow inside, but both of those practices are going to be changing, thanks to the MUTCD. US 141 doesn't mysteriously disappear here; it heads south one exit on US 41 to Velp Ave., but any traffic from I-43 NB ought to have used an earlier exit to avoid backtracking. Regardless, it's unfashionable to drop routes without cause.

I-894 and I-43/894
I-94 and I-43/94


To I-39
To US 12
Exit 82 to WIS 100
Onto WIS 32
Exit 149 to US 151
Onto US 10
Up onto WIS 29
Exit 185 to WIS 54
Exit 192 to US 41
Exit 192 to US 141
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