DE PERE, Wis. — A long-discussed bridge spanning the Fox River now has an official location.

Brown County officials announced Monday the South Bridge Connector project will be sited in De Pere, several miles south of the city.

“We have been talking about this, at least conceptually, since the 1960s,” said Cole Runge, Brown County planning director. “We’ve also been planning pretty thoroughly since the mid 1990s or so to get this point where it goes from being a plan to a project is a very big deal.”

The project runs from Lawrence, through a new interchange on U.S. 41 along South Bridge and Read Maple roads and across the river to Rockland Road in Ledgeview. It continues to Brown County X and GV on the east side of the river.

The project is designed to take some traffic off both the Claude Allouez Bridge in downtown De Pere and Wisconsin 172.

“One of the main reasons we’re doing this project is to relieve not just existing traffic levels in downtown De Pere, but also the future,” Runge said. “That area to the south of De Pere is going to grow significantly, we're projecting in the future, and with that will come additional traffic. Instead of routing that traffic downtown we’ll be able to route the traffic to this new location.”

He said a project timeline and cost have not yet been solidified.

Additional information about the project can be found here (https://www.browncountywi.gov/departments/planning-and-land-services/planning/south-bridge-connector/)​