Interstate 255 will be shut down for six months beginning Feb. 1 so crews can repair 3.5 miles of the highway from Illinois 157 to Illinois 15 in St. Clair County, the Illinois Department of Transportation said Friday.
The project, which was announced last year, is expected to be completed by July 31.
“By closing I-255, the project will be completed in six months instead of the two years that would be necessary if construction were staged,” according to the department’s news release. “Additionally, the project will cost $65.4 million, or about $10 million less in taxpayer dollars than completing the work in multiple phases.”
IDOT suggests motorists use Interstate 55 as a detour.
Crews will resurface the roadway, repair bridges, add new lighting and make signing and drainage improvements.
“Closing the interstate also reduces the risk to workers and motorists by eliminating traffic from an active construction site,” the news release stated.
In 2020, the agency shut down sections of the roadway in the metro-east for nine months for roadwork, stating that shutting down the highway completely, instead of completing work through lane closures, would speed completion and save taxpayer money.
That project repaired a seven-mile stretch of the highway from Collinsville Road in southern Madison County to Illinois 15 in St. Clair County.
The project was expected to cost $67 million from the Rebuild Illinois capital program, a $45 billion project to restore the state’s aging transportation system. However, officials said the time saved from closing portions of the road completely saved the state $14 million.
For years, state officials designated I-255 as one of the worst stretches of highway in Illinois. St. Clair County Chairman Mark Kern, at the time the restoration project began, compared driving on the road before its restoration to “driving on the moon.”
For more information, to the agency’s webpage titled “I-255 Rehabilitation Project.”
