(Radio Iowa) – The preferred design for a new Interstate-80 bridge in the Quad Cities will be unveiled at an online hearing on Wednesday and the public will be given a chance to comment. The current I-80 bridge over the Mississippi opened for traffic in 1966. The bridge replacement project would cover six miles on I-80 — from LeClaire, Iowa, to Quincy, Illinois. Steve Robery of the Illinois D-O-T says the bridge is nearing the end of its useful life and maintenance projects have been more costly and more frequent in the past several years.

“That impacts traffic in a negative way,” Robery says. “…There’s very narrow shoulders there on the existing bridge so we often have to close down a lane of traffic and that causes back-ups.” The Iowa and Illinois Departments of Transportation launched an engineering study in 2020. In October of last year, the agencies announced bridge design alternatives had been reduced from seven to four and it’ll be narrowed to one this week.

“What we plan to do at the meeting on the 15th is to present the information that we’ve worked on in the past year,” Robery says, “…(and) explain our justification for it.” Robery says construction could start in mid-2028 or 2029. Phase One of the project is likely to be done by the middle of next year.

“Phase I is the environmental and engineering study. Phase II is the development of the plans and specifications used to actually build the bridge. That process is two to three years in itself on a major bridge,” Robery says. The bridge and the lanes leading to and from it will have a larger footprint. That means some land has to be acquired for the project and Robery says that could take up to two years.