Major construction project along US-150/IL-1 in Tilton, IL

[Aaron Camp]

Here's a (Danville, IL) Commercial-News article about a major road construction/commercial development project in Tilton, Illinois on and along U.S. Route 150/Illinois Route 1 in Tilton (US-150/IL-1), where it is locally known as either "Georgetown Road" or "Route 1", even though the construction has been going on for some time.

Long story short, the project involves:

• Removing the folded diamond interchange between US-150/IL-1 and 14th Street (the grade separation of US-150/IL-1 at 14th Street would remain in place, meaning there will no longer be any direct access to or from US-150/IL-1 at 14th Street in Tilton once the ramps are removed)
• Building a new local street, Ramp Road, with a traffic light-controlled at-grade intersection with US-150/IL-1 (Ramp Road's name presumably comes from its purpose of functionally replacing the 14th Street ramps in Tilton
• Reconstruction of US-150/IL-1 between Southgate Drive and 14th Street in Tilton, including widening US-150/IL-1 to three lanes each direction for a short distance around the new Ramp Road intersection
• New-facility construction of streets in the eastern part of Tilton around US-150/IL-1
• Reconstruction of existing streets in the eastern part of Tilton around US-150/IL-1
• Construction of a roundabout east of US-150/IL-1 at the intersection of a couple of local streets

A pedestrian tunnel that served a now-demolished elementary school that sat on the east side of US-150/IL-1 in that area has been removed.

My mother drove me past the area yesterday (8/15/2018), and here's an update on current progress of the project:

• US-150/IL-1 has been temporarily narrowed while construction is ongoing from just north of Southgate Drive to at the current entrance/exit ramps for the soon-to-be-dismantled 14th Street interchange, although US-150/IL-1 is currently still two lanes in each direction
• Silt fences are in place in preparation of dismantling of the 14th Street interchange ramps, although the interchange remains open
• Access to West 16th Street in Tilton from southbound US-150/IL-1 (which was a RIRO intersection) has been at least temporarily closed while construction work is ongoing in that spot; the 16th Street intersection is slated to become a pair of RIRO intersections, with West 16th Street having access to/from southbound US-150/IL-1, and East 16th Street having access to/from northbound US-150/IL-1
• Work to remove the Jersey barrier in the median of US-150/IL-1 at the new Ramp Road intersection has not yet begun
• Apparently, some of the cement-type pavement on the eastbound side of Southgate Drive east of the intersection of US-150/IL-1 may have had trouble curing, since that area is still closed off despite paving having been apparently completed some time ago (unless there was additional paving work in that area going on that I didn't notice for whatever reason), and a right turn from northbound US-150/IL-1 to eastbound Southgate Drive is still a very tight turn around temporary barricades

[Revive 755]

Per the plans, Tilton is the lead agency on this project.

Also looks to be another example of only having one set of left turn arrows (for the temporary signal), plus possibly the first flashing yellow arrows for the Danville arrow.