Governor JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Transportation were joined by local officials and community leaders Monday to announce the start of construction on a new Interstate 57/74 interchange located in Champaign County.
The $216.8 million project will rebuild the original interchange built more than 50 years ago, improve safety and mobility, and create thousands of construction and permanent jobs while positioning the region for long-term economic opportunity.
Today, I-57 and I-74 each serve almost 35,000 vehicles a day in Champaign-Urbana, nearly 25-percent of which are trucks.
Construction began in July of 2020 as the “periphery” structures, Mattis over I-74, Mattis over I-57, and US 150 (Bloomington Rd) over I-57, were replaced and lengthened, allowing the bridges to accept future ramps needed for the I-57/I-74 interchange reconstruction.
The I-57/74 rebuild will replace a traditional cloverleaf interchange built in 1965 that no longer meets current traffic volumes and demands with a new design that includes two flyover ramps to improve traffic flow and efficiency for traveling in the region: Eastbound I-74 to northbound I-57 and westbound I-74 to southbound I-57. A third, auxiliary lane also will be added to both directions of I-74 between Prospect and Duncan Road.
Upon completion in 2025, the new interchange will eliminate the merging, weaving and slow speeds of the existing structure, resulting in better travel times and much fewer conflicts between vehicles.
The start of construction this week initially will require some overnight lane closures while temporary pavement is built to accommodate traffic during construction. Most of the activity during the day will consist of excavation work to build the footprint of the new interchange and have little impact on traffic.
I agree that this has been needed for a decade or better. But will you explain how permanent jobs will be created out of this? Permanent speed trap? Toll booth??