East Main Street underpass moves ahead

Galesburg-city-signIf all goes according to plan, construction on the East Main Street underpass is expected to begin in late March.

City Engineer Wayne Carl estimates the project will take about 20 months, putting the completion date around the end of 2018.

Pending January 15th bids, Carl did not discuss the expected costs of the project, but added the total will be greater than the Don Moffitt and Bickerdyke bridges because of the extra work required to dig underneath active tracks.

For comparison, the Don Moffitt overpass cost about $16.1 million.

A majority of the East Main underpass funding comes from Illinois Jobs Now, about $1.2 million comes from the city and five percent is being fronted by BNSF.

Carl tells WGIL greater access for drivers is not the only benefit the underpass will bring.

“It’s going to improve emergency services, greatly improve the congestion and the wait time that people have to wait,” Carl says. “And the other part, it will help the city put a quiet zone on that corner so there won’t be any train at the Mulberry crossing there. That’ll be the only crossing now on that line once the underpass goes in so we’ll be able to to implement a quiet zone there and we won’t have any train horns.”

The bridge was originally planned for bid earlier this year before being pushed back to November and most recently delayed to January.

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