In June the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) announced in a press release that multiple projects in the Bloomington-Normal area are planned or underway. The department listed seven major projects totaling $19.9 million of improvements.
“With the Rebuild Illinois capital plan, we are restoring and transforming Illinois’s aging infrastructure,” said Gov. Pritzker in the release “Rebuild Illinois is not only about investing in infrastructure but about investing in people and communities as well. In the coming months, IDOT will undertake projects that will ultimately create safer roads and bridges and provide jobs in Bloomington-Normal area and across the entire state.”
The seven projects listed were:
- I-55 bridge repair at Funks Grove Rest Area
- U.S. 24 from the Woodford County line to Center Street in Gridley
- U.S. 136 from I-55 to Heyworth
- U.S. 150 from I-74 to Carlock northwest of Normal
- I-55 over U.S. 136 at McLean
- Illinois 122 from the Tazewell County Line to Illinois 9 west of Bloomington
- I-55 from north of Lexington to the Livingston County line
The first project started was the I-55 bridge repair work at Funks Grove Rest Area. The cost of this project is $3.6 million. Construction began in March and is scheduled to be completed in August. The project includes Portland Cement Concrete joint repair on the bridges and resurfacing the roadway across the bridges.
Two bridges (one northbound and one southbound) on I-55 cross over an access road for northbound traffic on I-55 to exit to a rest area on the west side of the interstate. The access road also allows those travelers to get back on I-55 northbound.
Motorists should be aware that I-55 is currently reduced to one lane in each direction with median crossovers for northbound traffic while the northbound bridge is being worked on.
