The $246 million I-55 corridor improvement project in Jefferson County is expected to finish in the winter of 2026-2027, Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) spokesmen recently told the Leader.
But in the meantime, they said, drivers will continue to face headaches tied to construction.
Jordan Dalaviras, MoDOT area liaison for Franklin and Jefferson counties, and Justin Wolf, MoDOT project manager, recently met with the Leader to give updates on the project to expand the roadway from two to three lanes in both directions from Hwy. Z in Pevely to Hwy. 67 south of Festus. The project is intended to improve safety, they said.
“I think the key thing is, at the end of this project, we’re going to have three lanes all the way down to (Hwy. 67) on I-55,” Wolf said. “We realize this is an inconvenience for everyone who drives through here. So, it’s in everyone’s interest that we get this project done as quickly as possible. We just have to make sure that we can do it in a safe way and get the quality that we need to get.”
As work finishes in the southern part of the project and shifts north to the Pevely area, drivers will experience more demanding traffic situations in that area, Wolf warned.
“The reality is this summer, we have a lot of work to do,” he said. “As we’re finishing stuff in the southern end of the project in Festus and even up to Herculaneum, we’re really going to be amping up construction in Pevely.
“The further north you go with this project, the more traffic we have. We’re going to be experiencing the same challenges, but we’re going to have more traffic. So, it’s going to be challenging.”
He said drivers on southbound I-55 coming to Hwy. Z Pevely, where the roadway currently goes from three lanes to two, could be particularly affected by the construction work in the summer.
“What we’re trying to do is catch the northern end of the project up with the southern end of the project,” Wolf said. “We’re going to be finishing in Festus and even Herculaneum this summer or into the fall. And, we’ll be ramping up our work in Pevely. So, this year, people are going to see a lot of impacts in Pevely at Route Z.”
Dalaviras said MoDOT wants drivers to take special care when the project focuses on the Pevely part of the project.
“It’s where we’re going to ask drivers to pay attention – of course, follow the work zone signs, all the messages that are put up and any of the electronic boards, all our work zone signs, work zone speed limits,” he said. “We ask everybody to obey those and, of course, buckle up and phone down.”
MoDOT began planning for the project, which included meetings to get public input, in 2021. KCI of St. Louis, the builder as part of a design-build team, started work on the project in January 2024.
In March 2024, MoDOT had a groundbreaking for the project, which in addition to adding third lanes to the interstate in the project section includes: replacing the signalized intersection at Hwy. 67 and Hwy. CC with an interchange that allows free-flowing traffic at Hwy. 67 under a new Hwy. CC bridge; constructing new interchanges at Hwy. Z in Pevely, McNutt Street in Herculaneum and at Hwy. 67 south of Festus; replacing 14 bridges; rehabilitating 12 bridges and other improvements.
“This is a really long project,” Wolf said. “It’s 8 miles long. It’s 8 miles of new lane we’re adding to the interstate. Within that 8 miles, we have numerous bridges.”
Wolf said the Hwy. 67-Hwy. CC interchange work currently is demanding a great deal of attention from construction workers and drivers.
“Right now on 67, it’s full-blown,” he said. “That’s the heaviest construction we’re in right now. We’re blasting today. They blasted using dynamite to do that excavation.
“I think your readers can really see that working going on right now, because we’re doing massive excavation to lower that existing (Hwy. CC), to make that an interchange. That work should finish by this fall.”
Bridge work in the southern part of the project is nearing completion, they said. The bridges are located at Hwy. 67, Central Avenue and Third Street in Festus.
“So, when (Wolf) says the bridges are pretty much done, we’re into the last phase, kind of, in zone one (the southern part of the project), working on the northbound side,” Dalaviras said.
Progress has also occurred in the middle of the project area – Herculaneum – Wolf said.
“You can see we’re making good progress over McNutt Street,” he said.
Both MoDOT spokesmen said they still hope the project finishes by its original target of December of this year, but make no guarantees.
“Our goal is to get this done by December of 2026,” Wolf said. “That’s our goal. The reality is…”
“There could be things that change it, like weather,” Dalaviras said, finishing Wolf’s sentence.
“Really, winter ’26-’27,” Wolf added.
Dalaviras said the builder is making every effort to get the project completed.
“There are over 100 people working on this project pretty much on any given day,” he said. “So, between all of the different crews up and down the corridor there are over 100 people working on this, construction workers. It shows the magnitude of the project, and how the contractor is committed to completing this.”
The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission voted on July 12, 2023, to select a design and construction team for the project, naming KCI Construction Co. of St. Louis to be the builder, working off designs from engineering firms Bartlett and West of Sunset Hills and Wilson and Co. of Kansas City. The commission previously decided the I-55 project would be a design-build project, and the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) narrowed down the list of prospective bidders for the project to two teams.