Brady PieperThe Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) is investing nearly $220 million into ten Cook County road and bridge renovation projects, highlighting a historic construction year for the state.
These projects round out the fifth year of the state’s Rebuild Illinois capital plan, a six-year transportation investment program. Since its passage in 2019, Rebuild Illinois has allocated $33.2 billion to renovate, rebuild and repair the state’s aging transportation systems. The program is also the largest capital program in state history and is addressing all forms of transportation needs.
Through the last five years, Illinois has invested over $16 billion through Rebuild Illinois and has begun improvements projects on 6,541 miles of highway, 686 bridges and 986 additional safety advancements. The projects in this round of funding will revive Cook County roads, bridges and transportation infrastructure with road repaving and resurfacing, bridge widening and superstructure rehabilitation and various traffic light intersection safety improvements.
Bridge projects includewidening and repair on Harlem Avenue over 95th Street; a bridge replacement on LaGrange Road at Archer Avenue and 79th Street; bridge deck resurfacing, patching and bridge joint replacement and repair on I-55 from Wolf Road to Cicero Avenue; bridge replacement, reconstruction, intersection improvements and ADA upgrades on I-55 at Harlem Avenue; and bridge superstructure rehabilitation and bridge repair on Harlem Avenue at Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.
Road improvement and traffic safety projects will include intersection widening and road resurfacing at 55th Street from Interstate 294 to west of Plainfield Road; traffic signal replacements, repaving and ADA improvements at East Avenue at 47th Street to 55th Street; resurfacing on 79th Street from Archer Avenue to Cicero Avenue; resurfacing and the installation of retaining walls on I-290 at Ridgeland Avenue; and traffic signal replacement, ADA upgrades and water main and drainage improvements on Archer Avenue from Illinois 171 to Harlem Avenue and Harlem Avenue from Archer Avenue to 63rd Street.
David Wilson from Oak Park, Illinois, USA, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
