Interstate 41 is an Interstate designation overlaying US Route 41, in the portions of Wisconsin south of Green Bay. It's a new designation, created in the last year. The northern end of the designation is the interchange on the north side of Green Bay, where the northern end of Interstate 43 also occurs. Two separate freeways run between Green Bay and Milwaukee in eastern Wisconsin; the relevant portion of Interstate 43 runs closer to the Lake Michigan shoreline, whereas US Route 41's freeway bows west around the west side of Lake Winnebago, serving Appleton, Oshkosh, and Fond du Lac. When the US Route 41 freeway became fully upgraded, the Interstate 41 designation was born to overlay the US Route 41 designation on that freeway. For some reason, though, Wisconsin's DOT decided to extend the Interstate 41 designation south over all of Interstate 894, and the north-south section of Interstate 94 between Milwaukee and the Illinois border. The designation ends at the state line, as Illinois sees no point in bringing the Interstate 41 designation any farther south (I don't see the point either). Those reaches along Interstate 894 and Interstate 94 also are concurrent with US Route 41, so all of Interstate 41 overlays portions of the US Route 41 designation, if I didn't make that clear already. (Some would argue that this makes the Interstate 41 designation redundant.)
Only one interchange in Illinois mentions the existence of Interstate 41, and it's the interchange between Interstate 94 and Russell Road, a surface road running along the state line. My photo of an Interstate 41 marker comes from a junction assembly helping eastbound drivers anticipate the interchange. I try to avoid taking route marker photos in Wisconsin, because Wisconsin exclusively uses large unisigns with a background. It's just a personal preference to avoid them (though routesnapping Wisconsin on a state level makes them unavoidable). This photo was taken as I was driving around Lake County, Illinois on a random day in May 2016, mainly with the intent on photographing the many Illinois state highways in the area. Back to the nationwide main page. Back to the home page.