As the weather slowly gets warmer, Wisconsin’s never-ending construction season begins to build up steam. One of the newest projects in Winnebago County is the seven-month construction project on state Highway 76.

The project began on April 6 and is scheduled to be completed in early November. The work is divided into six stages that will be completed on a 3 mile stretch of the highway between I-41 and County JJ.

Project Manager Kurt Peters said that the first stage has already been completed. This included the temporary widening of the pavement and excavation of contaminated soil at the County JJ intersection, the installation of a temporary bypass lane as well as some sewer work and the installation of temporary pipes and extensions.

Stages two through six are scheduled to take up the remaining six and a half months of construction. These include finishing the County GG and County JJ roundabouts, a complete reconstruction of the County G intersection as well as reconstruction of the rest of the mainline highway where the construction is taking place.

Peters said that certain intersections will remain open at certain times while construction is taking place.

“We still have the crossroad at County G open, but GG is closed,” Peters said. “Around early August, that intersection will be done, and that is when we will close the County G intersection and build a roundabout there.”

The roundabouts at the County G and County GG intersections will be single lane roundabouts, and the roundabout at the County JJ intersection will be a double lane.

Street lights, a curb, a gutter and a storm sewer will also be installed at all three roundabouts, along with the replacement of the culvert pipes.

The County JJ roundabout will also replace the double left turn lane at the intersection.

Besides the roundabouts, the mainline highway will be reconstructed with two, 12-foot wide lanes with a paved shoulder of five feet and a total shoulder of 10 feet.

Peters said the route of the detour during construction won’t change and it shouldn’t interfere with any travel too much.

“The signed detour for the project is I-41 to US 45, US 45 up to HWY 10, and then back to WIS 76,” Peters said. “So it runs almost parallel on the state trunk highways.”

The highway is closed to through traffic, but local businesses will still be open to business traffic. There will be alternate signage that will direct customers to the route they need to take.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, the construction is taking place in order to provide a safer roadway for an estimated increase in traffic volumes on that section of state Highway 76.