The public is invited to a ceremony celebrating the start of the long-anticipated project to expand I-55 in both directions between Hwy. Z in Pevely and Hwy. 67 south of Festus.
Justin Wolf, project director for the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT), said the ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. Friday, March 8, at the Herculaneum Fire Department station, 151 Riverview Plaza Drive. The event previously was going to be held at an outdoor location in Herculaneum, but it was relocated because of the weather forecast.
Wolf said the winter’s mostly unseasonable warm and dry weather allowed preliminary work to start in late January.
“We’ve been clearing trees and doing some grading already,” Wolf said. “You may have noticed crews at the I-55 and Hwy. 61-67 interchange (south of Festus)."
Wolf said because work was expected to begin sometime over the winter, the ground-breaking ceremony couldn’t coincide with the actual start of work.
“When you start a project in the winter, you never know what weather you’re going to deal with when it comes to getting people out at a specific time,” he said. “This gives everyone who wants to be there the time to get it on their schedule. Hopefully, we’ll have good weather that day.”
Elected officials, MoDOT officials and local dignitaries are expected to attend, as are representatives from the KCI Team – the contractors for the project.
“It will be a chance for everyone who helped bring this project to where it is today – including state officials who secured the financing and local people who helped with the planning process and getting public support (to celebrate). We thank everyone who’s been involved.”
Wolf said work will generally move northward from the Hwy. 61-67 interchange, while the segment that involves reconfiguring the intersection at Hwy. 67 and Hwy. CC should begin later in 2024 and be complete in late 2025.
The entire I-55 project should be finished by the end of 2026, he said.
“We’ve got a general timeline, but some of that gets changed depending on when things like bridge girders are delivered,” Wolf said.
In addition to adding a lane in each direction, the project also includes resurfacing of pavement between Hwy. Z in Pevely and Hwy. M in Barnhart.
Wolf said I-55 traffic will be kept open to two lanes in each direction during weekday peak hours, with road restrictions limited to weekends, and then only for short periods of time.
In July, the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission awarded a design-build contract to KCI Construction Co. in St. Louis, working off designs completed by engineering firms Bartlett and West in Sunset Hills and Wilson and Co. in Kansas City.
The KCI Team, as the three firms are collectively known for this project, will be paid about $246 million to complete it.
Over the course of the 12-mile stretch of I-55 to be expanded to three lanes, Wolf said, 14 bridges will be replaced and 12 others will be rehabbed and improved.
“We’re ready to tackle this,” Wolf said of the I-55 project. “I-55 will be a safer and more reliable road once all this is done,” he said.
Wolf said conceptual drawings of the project can be seen on MoDOT’s website at modot.org.