Lawmakers and Illinois Department of Transportation officials released details last week of work planned as part of the approximately $45 billion capital plan the General Assembly passed this year. 

The multi-year plan, called the Proposed Highway Improvement Program, includes projects through 2025 and will create an estimated 540,000 jobs statewide. 

“This is a historic improvement, which will save taxpayers potentially billions of dollars over the long run,” Gov.  JB Pritzker said. 

Of the $23.5 billion slated for work on 4,212 miles of roadway and 9.2 million square feet of bridges, several million dollars will come to Monroe County for work in various areas. 

The capital plan is primarily funded by the state doubling its gas tax to 38 cents a gallon. 

IDOT

The big-ticket items in this area will primarily be handled by IDOT. 

Between 2021-2025, the JB Bridge is set to get over $20 million for bridge painting, joint replacement and repair, deck overlay and deck sealing. 

Missouri will lead this project, but Illinois will share the cost. 

As previously reported, a new I-255 interchange with a connection to Davis Street Ferry Road near Dupo is also part of the capital plan.

The plan estimates that project will cost just over $49 million, including land acquisition, utility adjustment, construction engineering and the new bridge. 

The plan does not delineate, however, exactly where all the funding will come from. 

The $45 billion figure for the capital plan includes state, federal and local money. About 58 percent of the total money will come from Illinois, 39 percent from the federal government and 3 percent will be from local governments. 

A final multimillion dollar project that IDOT will handle is $11 million to rehabilitate pavements on Route 3 from I-255 to Gilmore Lake Road. 

Kirk Brown, a program development engineer with IDOT, said 5.72 miles of work is still in the early stages, but it will include resurfacing among other possible improvements.  

That is set for sometime between 2021 and 2025, but no specifics have been determined. Illinois will pay for the entire project.

Waterloo

The multi-year plan lists only one project for Waterloo in the next six years, but that does not mean that is the only work that will be done in the city. 

The statewide plan does not list every project because not every one is part of the capital plan. 

The one listed is for about $1.7 million. 

That money will go toward a new drainage system, curb, gutter, sidewalk and roadway surface on Moore Street just north of the Columbia Avenue intersection near Gibault Catholic High School.

Waterloo Director of Public Works Tim Birk said the city is waiting to have its plans OK’d by the state, at which point it will work with property owners to acquire ground for the approximately .10 miles of work. 

Birk said the city is eyeing a 2020 start date on the project. 

“It’s a total reconstruction project,” Birk said. “It should be very nice when it’s done.” 

About $500,000 of the money will come from federal funding, which the state administers. 

Columbia

Columbia has four projects listed in the plan, though three have previously been reported. 

The new project is to replace a bridge at Wilson Creek in Columbia on Carl Street. 

The plan allocates $500,000 for that, $300,000 of which Columbia Public Works Director Chris Smith said comes from a federal grant. 

Smith said the plan is to start engineering work on that project early next year and begin construction in 2022. 

“We’re going to reconstruct the bridge, and maybe do a little widening,” Smith said. 

Of the previously reported projects, the plan allocates $651,000 for work scheduled on Quarry Road in the summer. That will include installing hot-mix asphalt shoulders, resurfacing, curb and gutter work on the south side of Quarry Road, along with construction of a shared-use trail on the south side from the existing trail to Palmer Creek Drive.

Once that is done, the plan earmarks $651,000 for phase two of that project. That includes adding curb, gutter, storm sewer, resurfacing and sidewalk improvements and is scheduled for the summer of 2021.

Seventy-five percent of those totals for both projects come from federal money. 

The final project, which is set for next year, is for bikeway and sidewalks starting at Bolm-Schuhkraft Park to Monroe Street and from Monroe Street west of Kaempf Street to Main Street. 

The $42,000 work listed in the plan is local money for engineering, but the city does have $232,000 in federal grant money for the actual construction. 

Engineering will be done next year. 

Construction will involve adding sidewalks, a curb and gutter along Monroe Street from Main Street to the former DOPW property. It will also include a shared-use path across city property that links main street to the existing trail in the park. 

Monroe County

The county has two projects listed in the plan, but one is the $4.2 million pavement rehabilitation currently underway on Route 3 between Columbia and Waterloo.

The other project will take place in two phases on Hanover Road and cost an estimated $1,840,245. The federal government will  contribute $796,000 of that money. 

Phase one will be to create a right turn lane on Hanover Road at the intersection with Route 3 and perform an asphalt overlay from that point to the GM&O railroad bridge. 

Phase two will involve continuing the pavement rehabilitation from that bridge 2.11 miles west to D Road.