The Village of Dupo is currently encouraging members of the community to voice support for its proposed new I-255 interchange, the latest push to help the long-awaited project finally reach fruition.

A recent post on Dupo’s Facebook page shares a graphic urging residents to contact the U.S. Department of Transportation and request that funds from the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity grant go toward the interchange project.

RAISE grants, per the Department of Transportation website, are discretionary grants meant to help project sponsors at the state and local levels complete freight and passenger transportation infrastructure projects.

Dupo Mayor Jerry Wilson and Peyton Wilson, an associate attorney with Reifers Holmes & Peters LLC in Belleville who oversees the RAISE grant application, offered an update on the interchange project and explained why the village is pushing for an additional grant.

The mayor noted he has been involved with the project since he became mayor, and in that time, the overall cost of the I-255 interchange has grown tremendously, with an especially big spike in cost occurring due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent supply and labor shortages.

“I’ve been engaged with this interchange for seven years now, trying to get this thing to break ground,” Jerry Wilson said. “When COVID came around, that’s what really took a hit on everything. There was a 20 or 30 percent increase with just the cost of construction.”

As previously reported in the Republic-Times, the project received a substantial boost just prior to the pandemic in 2019 when the State of Illinois announced it would be allocating $33 million of state and federal funds for the project.

Peyton Wilson, who is relatively new to the project, echoed much of the mayor’s sentiment.

Both Wilsons also touched on a few other hurdles that have been encountered in recent years – one of which being an architectural survey of the land that would be impacted by the new interchange and construction that would follow.

Both Peyton and Jerry said the project is in a generally good position, with great help from the oversight of the architectural survey and engineering of the project being, as Jerry described it, about 95 percent complete.

Money, however, continues to be a major roadblock.

“The first step was seeking additional funding,” Peyton said. “How do you pay for the interchange? From my understanding, there were a variety of appropriations that were federal in nature but administered by the Illinois Department of Transportation. I can tell you that the budget for this interchange project is substantively larger than it was originally.”

The RAISE grant is simply the latest means by which Dupo hopes to secure funding for the I-255 project, which would move its current exit on the interstate slightly south and offer new opportunities for economic investment.

The new I-255 interchange would be at Imbs Station Road, located about 2,300 feet north of the Davis Street Ferry overpass just outside of Columbia. A total of $17.5 million was awarded several years ago as part of a federal transportation bill. The existing Dupo exit on I-255 would be removed as part of this project.

Peyton offered additional information on the RAISE grant, noting it is particularly meant to go toward historically disadvantaged and underserved communities.

With Dupo being in the East St. Louis area, as he described, the village would seem to be a good candidate to qualify for funding.

“We’re hoping with this RAISE grant, we’ve asked for way above what they’re projecting this thing will cost,” Jerry said. “I’m hoping, with this grant, if we can receive this, we can pretty much get the dirt flying on it.”

Jerry further explained the reason for the recent Facebook post. While the project already has a great deal of support among government representatives, it is also important to show there is support among local residents.

“The whole thing with the Facebook post is for the citizens to call in to transportation that they support this project,” Jerry said. “They’ve got dedicated systems for this to say ‘OK, there’s 5,000 people supporting this.’ Obviously, you’ve got to get congressmen, you’ve got to get a lot of people to sign off on this, which we have all those. The whole thing was to get the citizens involved as well to support the project.”

Peyton further spoke to governmental support of the project, noting how impressive it is for a project to have bi-partisan support as the interchange does.

He also stressed the fact the I-255 interchange is competing with many other projects throughout the country for RAISE funding.

“This is a competitive program, which means the reason that we asked citizens and that the mayor and the village sought citizen support with the Department of Transportation is because we are literally competing with everywhere else in the country who are looking at these grants,” Peyton said.

With plans for the project in a very good spot as previously mentioned, Jerry and Peyton expressed hopes at seeing the interchange project awarded the grant this year – though Peyton noted there may be additional opportunities in 2025 and 2026.

With many parties and other projects in the area centering around the new I-255 interchange – including the newly approved Columbia business district along Old Route 3 – Jerry is keen to see progress on the project sometime soon.

“Dupo has invested two million dollars into this project over the years,” Jerry said. “We have to get this done. It’s gonna be great for the community. It gives a lot of the community area for opportunity, jobs and everything else.”

To express support for the RAISE grant as part of Dupo’s new I-255 interchange project, call 202-366-0301 or send an email to RAISEgrants@dot.gov.