^Wisconsin 172 continues east onto its final eastward mile, February 2022.

Wisconsin Highway 172 is a short highway in the Green Bay. It is partially a surface highway, but the eastern half is a freeway forming the southern section of a limited--access beltway around Green Bay. Due west of Green Bay, Wisconsin Highway 54 is making its way toward the west, aiming directly for its target of Green Bay's center. A few miles west of the Green Bay city limits, Wisconsin Highway 54 curves toward the left onto a northeasterly alignment, and Wisconsin Highway 172 begins heading west in its stead. Highway 172 goes eastward as Airport Drive, which does indeed go past Green Bay's airport. Highway 172 is a surface road for its first five miles, until it reaches Interstate 41. The interchange where it reaches Interstate 41 is the southwest corner of a series of freeways encircling Green Bay. As such, this interchange is where Highway 172 becomes a freeway, which proceeds eastward. The freeway's first set of goals is to cross over Wisconsin Highway 32, the Fox River, and Wisconsin Highway 57. Access to the two state highways allows Highway 172 to serve suburbs of Green Bay like Allouez, Ashwaubenon, and De Pere. After about six miles as a freeway, Wisconsin Highway 172 ends at a terminal stack interchange with Interstate 43 in Bellevue. This endpoint is in the southeastern reaches of the Green Bay metropolitan area.

My photo of a route marker for Wisconsin Highway 172 comes from the easternmost interchange with a surface road, and that surface road is Monroe Road (County Road GV). Southbound motorists on Monroe Road use this signage to locate the onramp to the westbound lanes of Highway 172. Note how Interstate 41 is shown as a defining waypoint to disambiguate directions along Highway 172, which is viewed as a sort of feeder freeway into either Interstate 41 ​or Interstate 43. This photo was taken in February 2022, during a trip around eastern Wisconsin.
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