Motorists on southbound I-55 will be able to drive on two new lanes being built in the Festus area beginning in January, nearly a year after construction crews began working on an 8-mile stretch of the interstate from Pevely to south of Festus.
Justin Wolf, project director for the Missouri Department of Transportation, said motorists will switch from the current two lanes to the two new lanes being built where the median used to be. Those new lanes will be open along a roughly 3-mile segment of the interstate from the Quarry Road bridge north of Festus to Hwy. 67 south of Festus. The two new lanes are separated by a permanent concrete barrier.
Wolf predicts the switch will take place in the first or second week of January, depending on weather conditions.
The switch will allow crews to repave the far-right southbound lane and to replace three bridges in the 3-mile segment.
“We’ve been working on the median lanes and we’re ready to put traffic on them,” Wolf said. “The thing is, we can’t start tearing out the old bridges until we get traffic off the old bridges and put it on (the new median lanes). Once we get traffic on the new bridges, we can tear out the old.”
When the change takes place, Wolf said, motorists who plan to exit I-55 at Festus need to stay in the new right-most lane at the beginning of the 3-mile stretch, or else they will be unable to exit the interstate. Motorists will not be able to switch lanes through the new stretch due to the concrete barrier between the two new lanes.
“One of the tricky parts is a lot of I-55 has a 60-foot wide median, but through Festus, we only have about 40 feet, so it’s a bit narrower and it’s tighter and more constrained, and that’s making it a little bit more complicated,” Wolf said. “That’s why it’s really important that when we do shift traffic onto the new concrete, we’re going to have two lanes going southbound, and one lane is going to be on the right side of the new concrete barrier, and one lane is going to be on the left side of the concrete barrier.”
Wolf recommends that motorists continuing southbound on I-55 past Festus, to Ste. Genevieve or Memphis, Tenn., for example, stay in the left lane to reduce the likelihood of traffic issues.
Construction on the I-55/Hwy. 67 interchange south of Festus continues, Wolf said. The southeast roundabout for northbound Hwy. 67 traffic and northbound I-55 traffic exiting to northbound Hwy. 67 is expected to open at the end of this month, he said.
Once the switch to the median lanes is made, the northwest loop at the interchange, which allows southbound Hwy. 67 motorists to merge onto southbound I-55, will close, Wolf said.
Southbound Hwy. 67 motorists will detour using southbound Hwy. 61, merging onto I-55 at exit 170 farther south of Festus.
Wolf said he anticipates the closure of the northwest loop to last up to six months while crews work on the bridge at the interchange.
Three-year project
Wolf said MoDOT “got shovels in the ground” in February, with more than 100 people working on the 8-mile stretch of highway on any given day. In addition to widening the highway, crews are replacing 16 bridges, rehabilitating six bridges and replacing the superstructure, meaning the beams or the girders, on four more bridges.
All of this takes time, Wolf said.
“This is a $246 million project where we’re adding a third lane to 8 miles of interstate. So, this is going to take three full years, and here we are at the end of 2024. We started in February, so we’ve got one year done, and we have two more years to go.”
Wolf said motorists should see even more work completed near Hwy. Z in Pevely in early 2025. MoDOT is working to gain final approvals from BNSF and Union Pacific railroad companies to work on bridges that span their tracks. The BNSF railroad is north of Hwy. Z, and the Union Pacific railroad is south of the highway.
The supply chain should work faster in the second year of the project, as agreements between manufacturers are already in place, Wolf said.
“All of those bridges are completely designed, and drawings have been shipped over to these steel fabricators or concrete manufacturers, and they’re now casting the girders and getting all that stuff so they can send it out to us,” he said.
Updates from MoDOT on the I-55 project, along with a photo gallery, can be found at modot.org/i-55-upgrades-jefferson.
Wolf encourages motorists who frequently travel I-55 to monitor MoDOT’s website and social media for news about the project.
“Construction projects test the patience of people, but at the end of this project, this interchange, and I-55, is going to operate really well,” he said.