U.S. Route 8

U.S. Highway8 (US8) is a United States Numbered Highway that runs primarily east–west for 280 miles (451km), mostly within the state of Wisconsin. It connects Interstate 35 (I-35) in Forest Lake, Minnesota, to US2 at Norway, Michigan. Except for the short freeway segment near Forest Lake, a section near the St. Croix River bridge, the interchange with US51, and a three-mile (4.8km) stretch west of Rhinelander, Wisconsin, it is mostly an undivided surface road. As a state highway in the three states, US8 is maintained by the Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan departments of transportation (MnDOT, WisDOT, and MDOT, respectively).

The highway was originally commissioned on November 11, 1926, with the rest of the original U.S. Highway System. At the time, it ran between Forest Lake, Minnesota, and Pembine, Wisconsin, with a planned continuation to Powers, Michigan. Several changes have been made to the routing of the highway since then. The western end was extended south to Minneapolis before it was truncated back to Forest Lake. Other changes on the east end have moved that terminus from the originally planned end location at Powers to the current location in Norway. Internal WisDOT and MDOT map files at various times have shown plans to reroute the highway to connect to the original planned 1926 terminus. US8's course through the three states has also been shifted to follow different alignments over the years.

WisDOT built a bypass around the city of Rhinelander in the 1990s and created a business loop along the old highway through the town. This loop was a locally maintained route through the central business district in Rhinelander. The signage for the loop was removed in 2005.

Route description

Forest Lake to St. Croix Falls

US8 begins at an interchange with I-35 in Forest Lake. This interchange is incomplete: traffic can only access US8 directly from northbound I-35, and westbound traffic on US8 merges onto southbound I-35. The first one-mile (1.6km) segment of roadway to Forest Lake is a freeway, with an interchange at US61. East of this junction, the highway follows Lake Boulevard North around Forest Lake and continues northeasterly through the community to cross the Washington–Chisago county line. The highway continues to the northeast along farmland and the shore of Green Lake to Chisago City, where it meets up with County State-Aid Highway 22 (CSAH22). US8 follows Lake Boulevard through Chisago City along the isthmus between the larger Chisago Lake and the smaller Wallmark Lake on the eastern side of town. The highway turns along a more easterly path in Lindström between North and South Lindström lakes. East of those lakes, US8 crosses into the town of Center City.

In Center City, US8 runs between North and South Center lakes, curving around the north shore of South Center Lake. On the eastern edge of town, it turns due east for several miles and runs through Shafer. US8 merges with Minnesota State Highway 95 (MN95) at a roundabout about two miles (3.2km) southwest of Taylors Falls. The two highways concurrently turn northeast along the St. Croix River, entering town. At this point, MN95 continues north along the river while US8 turns east to cross the St. Croix River, exiting the state of Minnesota into Wisconsin.

Legally, the Minnesota section of US8 is defined as Constitutional Route46 and Legislative Route98 in the Minnesota Statutes §§161.114(2) and 161.115(29); the roadway is not marked with those numbers. The section of US8 in Chisago County was officially designated the Moberg Trail in 1990.

St. Croix Falls to Rhinelander

US8 enters Polk County at St. Croix Falls as a multilane roadway. It joins State Trunk Highway35 (WIS35) at a diamond interchange located approximately one mile (1.6km) from the state line. The two highways run concurrently for four miles (6.4km) before WIS35 turns off to the north at a location in the Town of St. Croix Falls west of Deer Lake. US8 continues eastward through forest lands, and WIS46 joins from the north for a four-mile (6.4km) concurrency before splitting off to the south. Continuing eastward, US8 passes through Range and crosses into Barron County at Turtle Lake. US63 merges from the south near Turtle Lake and departs to the north in the downtown area. The roadway passes through Poskin and intersects WIS25 in Barron. East of Barron, US8 meets US53 at a mixed diamond/cloverleaf interchange and turns north into Cameron, then turns east in downtown to leave the latter community. After a nine-mile (14km) straightaway, the highway crosses into Rusk County, and then it continues due east for an additional five miles (8.0km) before turning northeast and passing through Weyerhaeuser. Continuing northeasterly, the roadway crosses WIS40 in Bruce. East of town, the highway continues through rural Rusk County, and US8 meets WIS27 in downtown Ladysmith.

Upon leaving Ladysmith, US8 passes through the communities of Tony, Glen Flora, Ingram (where it meets the northern terminus of WIS73) and Hawkins on its way out of Rusk County. In Price County, US8 passes through Kennan and Catawba. WIS111 terminates at its south end on US8 just east of Catawba. US8 meets WIS13 at a diamond interchange northwest of Prentice and passes north of the city. The highway passes through Brantwood and enters Lincoln County at Clifford. Further east, US8 crosses Tripoli and McCord and runs north of Tomahawk as it passes through the Lake Nokomis area. US51 crosses US8 northeast of Tomahawk. US8 turns northeast into Oneida County and onto a forested twisting northeasterly alignment. For much of this segment the highway follows the Soo Line Railroad. The highway passes through Woodboro and passes several lakes. A few miles before Rhinelander, the highway expands to a divided highway into Rhinelander. During this stretch, the highway has an exempt railroad crossing with only crossbucks. It merges with WIS47 at a roundabout on the southwest side of Rhinelander. WIS17 north joins the highways one-half mile (0.80km) to the southeast, creating a wrong-way concurrency with WIS47; along this section of highway, eastbound US8 is also southbound WIS47 and northbound WIS17 and vice versa. WIS17 turns to the north two miles (3.2km) southeast of there, and US8 and WIS47 head eastbound out of the Rhinelander area.

Rhinelander to Norway

US8 intersects US45 south in Monico, and WIS47 splits from US8 to follow US45 south. Immediately east of the same intersection, US45 north follows US8 for one mile (1.6km) before splitting to the north. US8 enters Forest County five miles (8.0km) east of Monico. Seven miles (11km) into the county, the highway merges with WIS32 from the north in Crandon and the two highways head east to Laona where US8 turns north and WIS32 turns south. US8 turns east again at Cavour and passes through the community of Armstrong Creek one mile (1.6km) from the Marinette County line. The highway passes through Goodman and Dunbar as it meanders through the county and joins US141 at Pembine. The two routes split 10 miles (16km) further north near Niagara; after the split, US8 heads east. The highway takes a northward turn and heads across the Menominee River into Michigan near Pier's Gorge Park.

Entering Michigan south of Norway at the Menominee River crossing in Norway Township, US8 proceeds north into the city where it ends at US2. US8 in Michigan is 2.322 miles (3.737km) long; in this segment, the road passes by the Dickinson County fairgrounds and Norway Speedway.

History

20th century

Starting in 1918, the Wisconsin Highway Commission erected highway numbers along state-maintained roadways. The highway across the state from St. Croix Falls to Armstrong Creek was numbered WIS14 at that time. The remainder of what is now US8 was unnumbered secondary highways, and WIS14 continued north of Armstrong Creek to Florence. When Michigan numbered its highway system the following year, the future US8 was not included in the system. In Minnesota, US8 would follow what was Constitutional Route46, which was designated in a state constitutional amendment adopted on November 2, 1920; that roadway originally ran between Forest Lake and Chisago City through Wyoming.

The first changes to the routings of the predecessor highways were made by Wisconsin by 1920. A series of curves were added between Turtle Lake and Barron adding "stair steps" to the routing while similar jogs were removed near Cameron, Weyerhauser, Hawkins and Prentice. WIS14 was rerouted between Rhinelander and Pelican Lake to run via Monico, and WIS38 (the future US141) was extended northward from Wausaukee to terminate at the state line near Niagara. The realignment between Rhinelander and Pelican Lake was shown as reversed by 1922. By 1925, the highway in that area was again rerouted to run directly from Rhinelander to Monico, but instead of turning south to Pelican Lake, it was run directly to Crandon. That same year, WIS14 was extended eastward from Armstrong Creek to Pembine and northward to Niagara. The north–south section, previously numbered WIS38, was also redesignated as part of WIS57.

US8 was created with the beginnings of the United States Numbered Highway System on November 11, 1926. The highway was originally shown on maps running between Forest Lake, Minnesota and Powers, Michigan. At the time, its planned routing was not previously designated as part of the State Trunkline Highway System in Michigan. The trunkline connection from Quinnesec south into Wisconsin was part of M-57, which met WIS57 at the state line. US8 ended at WIS57 in Pembine at the time, with no connection into Michigan shown on official maps. A map by the American Automobile Association does show the highway continuing east through Faithorn and Hermansville in Michigan to end at US2. The Wisconsin Highway Commission previously indicated an unnumbered state highway on their 1925 state map that connected Pembine with the Menominee River near Hermansville. A later extension in 1927 moved US8 to run along US141, which had replaced WIS57 and M-57, ending in Quinnesec at US2. By the next year, the highway was shifted to end in Norway, utilizing a separate crossing of the Menominee River to enter Michigan.

In 1931, US8 was extended south from Forest Lake into downtown Minneapolis. West of the Rhinelander area, US8 and US51 overlapped for about eight miles (13km) as US8 jogged northward along US51. This concurrency was altered in 1934, and two years later the short east–west section of US8/US51 was removed when changes to US51's routing were finished in the area. A jog in the routing near Almena was removed in 1937 when Wisconsin rerouted the highway to a more direct alignment in the area.

The last segment of US8 in Wisconsin was paved in 1937 between Cavour and Armstrong Creek; the highway in Minnesota was paved in its entirety by 1940. Near Hawkins, a pair of sharp curves near the Rusk–Price county line were removed as the State Highway Commission realigned the highway to follow a straighter course. The US8/US51 concurrency was altered the next year to a shorter overlap running southward near Heafford Junction. The former routing of US8 was redesignated County Trunk Highway K (CTH-K) after it was transferred back to county control.

Starting around the year 1955, US8 was moved to a more direct routing between Forest Lake and Chisago City; US8 replaced MN98 along Legislative Route98. The former routing between Wyoming and Chisago City along Constitutional Route46 was then redesignated MN98 until it was decommissioned in the late 1990s.

As late as 1959, the Michigan State Highway Department still had plans to build the section of US8 west of Hermansville to the Menominee River. The control section atlas published on January 1, 1959, showed this segment of highway on the Menominee County map, complete with a control section number. The section of highway is shown as "proposed" or "under construction". However, a new bridge was built over the Menominee River to carry the highway across the Michigan–Wisconsin state line near Norway in 1966. WisDOT still shows the section of highway needed in their state to extend US8 to the original eastern terminus in Michigan on internal maps. The December 31, 2004, edition of their Official State Trunk Highway System Maps shows this section as a "mapped corridor".

In the late 1970s, with ongoing construction and completion of the I-35W freeway in Minnesota, US8 was routed along I-35W; US8 was truncated again by 1981 to its current terminus in Forest Lake. The section in New Brighton is currently known as Old Highway 8.

WisDOT built a bypass of the city of Rhinelander during the early 1990s; the new highway was constructed south of town as a new two-lane highway that opened to traffic by 1993. The former route through downtown Rhinelander and near Clear and George lakes was redesignated as Business US8 (Bus. US8).

21st century

In 2002, US8 was widened from two lanes to four lanes with a grass median between North Rifle Road and WIS47 near Rhinelander, Wisconsin. At the time, officials with WisDOT had plans to extend the four-lane divided highway as far west as US51 near Tomahawk. Problems related to wetlands in the construction area and bad weather pushed completion of the project back almost a year. Contractors had to install metal sheeting to stabilize the marshy ground. Originally scheduled to end in late 2002, the project did not finish until August 2003. The delays and additional work increased the price tag of the project from the original $4.5million (equivalent to $7.3million in 2024) to $6.0million (equivalent to $9.8million in 2024). A section of the project was only designed for 45-mile-per-hour (72km/h) speeds for safety reasons. The design also allowed planners to limit the amount of land needed for the expansion.

Bill and Jerri Osberg sued the state and seven other parties in April 2003 over runoff from the construction, claiming that it killed hundreds of trees and polluted ponds on their property. Later investigation uncovered damage to wildlife habitat in the Wisconsin River. Included in the original lawsuit were six individual WisDOT employees, the primary contractor and a local pet supply company. The court of appeals partially upheld a ruling by the district court dismissing the employees and the contractor from the lawsuit in March 2006. The pet supply company was reinstated in the case by the appeals court. The couple settled their claims, and the state pursued the matter against Pagel Construction in a related lawsuit. WisDOT alleged that the contractor did not follow proper erosion controls and failed to remediate the erosion damage to the Osbergs' property. The state wanted the construction company to forfeit their $70,000 retainer (equivalent to $114,000 in 2024) and pay damages of $150,000 (equivalent to $218,000 in 2024). Pagel Construction faulted WisDOT's erosion control plan and said that the state's engineers controlled the project and was seeking the return of its retainer. In September 2007, a jury ruled in favor of Pagel Construction and awarded them $70,898.13 in damages (equivalent to $103,026 in 2024).

In the 2020s, the entire US8 corridor through Wisconsin was designated as an Alternative Fuel Corridor for electric vehicles.

Future

WisDOT has completed the environmental studies of bypasses of Barron and Cameron in Barron County. These bypasses would form a continuous expressway through the area. No funding has been identified to complete the projects. The entire length of US8 in the state has been classified as a North Country Corridor in the Connections 2030 Plan by the department. This designation marks the highway as a priority in "continued safety, enhanced mobility and efficiency" as well as "modernization to correct outdated infrastructure design".

Major intersections

Business route

Business U.S. Highway8 (Bus. US8) in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, was a locally maintained business loop highway routing through the central business district of the city. The route was designated when US8 was shifted to a bypass of downtown in 1992. The former routing of US8 through the area was designated as a business loop, and it was turned over to the city and county for maintenance. The local authorities erected signs along this route to designate it as a business loop of the main highway south of town. The signs along the road were scheduled to be removed on July 1, 2005, when the business loop was to be redesignated CTH-P.

Before the signage was removed, Bus. US8 started at the western junction of US8 and WIS47. The business loop ran east from this intersection along Kemp Street, crossing the Wisconsin River north of the convergence with the Pelican River. The loop jogged north along Oneida Street for three blocks and turned east again on Lincoln Street. East of town, Bus. US8 intersected WIS17 and turned to the southeast. Outside of town, the business loop ran through wooded terrain and turned south near Clear Lake. Near the larger George Lake, the roadway curved back east along the lake's southern shore, running parallel to the main highway before turning south to connect to the main highway. At this intersection with US8/WIS47, the business loop ended after a total run of 7.1 miles (11.4km).

See also

• U.S. Highway 208

Notes

External links

• Geographic data related toatOpenStreetMap
• at The Unofficial Minnesota Highways Page
• at Historic Minnesota Highways
• at Wisconsin Highways
• at Michigan Highways
• at US Ends
• at Minnesota State Highway Endings
• at Wisconsin Highways