The city of Viroqua will be shutting down part of a major street in town as it goes through the last phase of a three-phase project to revamp Hwy. 56.

Last summer, Decker Street west of Main Street in Viroqua was closed from May until November.

The east portion of the Hwy. 56 project, Decker Street from Main Street east to DeFreese Street, will be shut down for most of the summer.

Viroqua City Administrator Jeff Gohlke said work will likely begin by the last week in April, but exact details of that timeline will be nailed down at a pre-construction meeting.

The On April 22 The Wisconsin Department of Transportation along with the Prime Contractor, Pember Companies, Inc., will be holding a Public Informational Meeting on the East Decker Street reconstruction project which will be starting in late April. The meeting will take place at the Western Wisconsin Technical College in Viroqua at 6:30 p.m. in the Gaumer Room. Items that will be discuss will include, traffic control, detour route, construction schedule, access issues for business, construction stages and the general work to be completed for the project. All interested parties should attend.

On May 5 an additional PIM will be held to answer any additional questions about the project after the initial start. This meeting will again take place at the Technical College in Viroqua and will be held at 6:30 p.m. The meeting room will be posted on the door the night of the meeting.

Gohlke said the project will be similar to the other phases of the project in that the work will also impact some side streets because of water and sewer connections.

Gohlke said portions of Wisconsin Avenue and Rusk, Court, Parkinson and Center streets will all be part of the project. Gohlke said the DOT and the contractors are still working out details of how the project will unfold, but every step will be taken to minimize the impact to businesses and homeowners.

Gohlke said it is not clear yet how traffic from DeFreese Street will be handled since traffic from that direction into the city may not have direct access to another street for at least part of the project. Gohlke said the project will be done in stages, but the sequence of the stages will not be announced until after the pre-construction meeting.

Traffic on Hwy. 56 east of Viroqua will be rerouted to South Street, which was extended last summer to connect Main Street to Hwy 56. Parking along East South Street will be eliminated for the duration of the project and the stop signs will also be removed and replaced when the project is completed.