New contracts going out for bid
https://www.illinoistollway.com/documents/20184/38197ffa-3901-4f27-8207-65ea29988afc
looks like they updated their website for 2017 construction. Appears as though they're rebuilding the bridges on 90 in Rockford.
Seems like something they should have done when they rebuilt that stretch ~10 years ago.
I suspect the work in 2008 and 2009 was envisioned as a shorter-term project. They poured asphalt instead of concrete for the driving surface, and overlaid the original 1950's roadbed for the outside lanes. They also didn't replace overpasses along that stretch (aside from the I-39/US-20 interchange).
ISTHA understood that it needed to deliver congestion relief to the I-39/90 stretch in Winnebago County before it completed work farther east. That road was one miserable son-of-a-bitch before the widening and the Open Road Tolling were implemented. The previous I-39/US-20 interchange was not going to handle the additional influx of truck traffic avoiding the sections of I-90 east to Chicago, opting to use I-88 or I-80 instead. And, frankly, they needed that stretch to move more traffic to help generate toll revenue to finance the rest of the work.
Note also that they completed the I-355 stretch south to I-80 before starting on I-90 between Rockford and I-294, again laying a foundation for a relief route via I-88 to keep traffic off the sections of I-90 under construction.
Now that they've completed the majority of the Rockford to I-294 work, they can prep the Winnebago County stretch for more permanent widening work. My speculation is that within the next 10-20 years, ISTHA will come back and widen the Winnebago County stretch to 8 lanes, either in its entirety or in part (say, widen north from I-39/US-20 to Riverside, then down to 6 lanes northward). It'll also likely get the same improvements we see on I-90 east of Rockford - including the median lighting.
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Topic: Illinois Tollway Notes (Read 220777 times)