New interchange for South Main at US 20 planned

Add comment January 15th, 2008

I stopped in to the Illinois Department of Transportation’s information meeting at Faith Center this afternoon to hear and see about the planned $15 million rebuild of the interchange at US 20 and South Main.

The bridge, more than 45 years old, is not in the best shape and needs to be replaced. Also, I learned that trucks carrying too-tall loads on South Main have actually hit the bridge!

The plan is to raise the level of US 20 by 2 and 1/2 feet and get rid of the  cloverleaf style interchange, replacing it with long offramps that terminate in  signaled intersections at South Main.

The new offramps are designed to accomodate a six lane highway, which engineers say will eventually be required on US 20 in coming decades.

The design also features room for a bicycle trail, engineers told me.

The rebuild is in the state of Illinois’ multi-year plan, and is currently in the engineering stage. However, construction depends on the state legislature and governor agreeing on a capital spending plan, and we haven’t had one of those since 1999.