About 140 people had the chance last week to look at and comment on a project that will add a third lane on I-55 between Pevely and Festus.
About 80 people dropped by an open house public meeting held Oct. 5 at the Festus Public Library, 400 W. Main St., and another 60 participated in a virtual meeting held the next night.
Justin Wolf, manager of the I-55 project for the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT), said while many people gave their opinions or voiced concerns about the project during the two days, they tended to fall in line with what has been said at previous meetings.
“This was the third public meeting we’ve had on I-55, and we’ve also had meetings with a community advisory group,” Wolf said. “While we valued the input we had at last week’s meetings, we pretty much heard the same concerns and questions as we’ve heard in the past.”
Wolf said people who live in the I-55 corridor have not been shy about speaking up.
“We’ve had a lot of inquiries, naturally, from people who are concerned about how they’re going to get back and forth to work, how they’re going to get their kids to day care, things like that. The other questions we’ve gotten most frequently is from landowners whose property is adjacent to MoDOT right-of-way along I-55, asking whether we’ll be taking any more land. Other questions generally deal with whether we’re going to be improving any intersections or replacing any bridges along the way.”
He said answers to those questions are still to come.
The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission, which oversees MoDOT, approved the I-55 concept as a design-build project at its June 2 meeting in Hillsboro. The approval allows MoDOT to seek civil engineering firms to submit their plans for the project, and those firms will recruit a contractor to build from those specifications.
Under the current schedule, an engineering firm will be awarded the contract for the project in May 2023.
“The public comments will help us develop a request for proposals that will inform the firms that will bid on the project,” Wolf said.
The request will include a number of project goals, including meeting the budget and schedule for the project, building the project safely and maintaining safety and reliability along I-55 and Hwy. 61-67 during the construction phase, minimizing the impact to residents and designing and building the project so that it can be maintained easily by MoDOT.
“The idea of the design-build is to maximize innovations in the industry,” Wolf said, “by allowing designers to come up with solutions that fit the project goals, who will then select contractors who will best perform the work.”
He said an emphasis will be placed on minimizing a full closure of any stretch of the highway.
Wolf said another public hearing will be held after the design firm has completed its plans.
The project, estimated to cost as much as $236 million, has been included in the current state Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP) approved by the East-West Gateway Coordinating Council of Governments, which coordinates road projects in the St. Louis region. It will involve the stretch of I-55 from 1 1/2 miles north of Hwy. Z in Pevely to 1 mile south of the Hwy. 67 interchange south of the Twin Cities.
According to the project timeline, construction could begin in 2023, with work wrapping up sometime in 2026.
Public comments on the project will be accepted through Oct. 19 by email to Wolf at justin.wolf@modot.mo.org or through the MoDOT website, modot.org.