Wisconsin Highway 312

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State Trunk Highway 312

North Crossing

Length:

7.9 mi^[1] (12.7 km)

West end:

I-94 in Union, near Eau Claire

East end:

US-53 in Seymour, near Eau Claire

Wisconsin highways
< WIS 310		WIS 341 >
County - Bannered - Rustic

State Trunk Highway 312 (often called Highway 312, STH 312 or WIS 312) is a 7.9 mile long Wisconsin state highway running along the north side of Eau Claire, from the Town of Union in the west to the Town of Seymour in the east.

The highway is a major transit route, bypassing the north side of Eau Claire by connecting I-94 with U.S. 53. The route number is derived as a "spur route" of U.S. 12.

Wisconsin Highway 312 is called the North Crossing in the Chippewa Valley, and as of June 2007, remains signed as "Formerly STH 124". The name "North Crossing" developed during the planning stages of the project that culminated in the creation of the highway—the highway was designed to divert traffic crossing the Chippewa River that, prior to its creation, had to pass either through downtown Eau Claire, via the Madison St. bridge, or just west of Chippewa Falls on U.S. 53. The distance between these two bridges is approximately 8 miles. The "North Crossing" name specifically referred to a more northerly river crossing than any other point in Eau Claire. When it came time to decide upon a name for the highway, the term "North Crossing" had already become well-established in the vocabulary of the area, and so it was decided that that was the most natural name for the new roadway.

[edit] History

Highway 312 was first established by legislation in 2005 as a new route number for the stretch of Highway 124 running from Interstate 94 to U.S. Highway 53. A secondary effect of assigning the designation number 312 to the route was to shorten WIS-124 to a length and routing nearly identical to that it had in 1992, before it was extended as a State Highway route to cover the then-new "North Crossing" in Eau Claire. While the legislation establishing Highway 312 was intended to only take effect once the new Highway 53 bypass of Eau Claire was completed in late-summer 2006, local authorities "jumped the gun", posting new "WIS 312" signs as early as November 2005.