ROCK ISLAND COUNTY, Ill. — The Illinois Department of Transportation (DOT), along with the Iowa DOT, will hold a fourth online public meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 15 to discuss the future of the I-80 Mississippi River Bridge.
The meeting will be used as a platform to present study information, review the "Preferred Alternative," and receive public comment on the I-80 bridge.
The public meeting will be online at 4 p.m. on Nov. 15. Participants can register for the meeting by clicking this link, or by visiting the project website, registering with a name and email address.
Comments are welcome and those received through Nov. 29 will become part of the public meeting record.
The project is currently in Phase I, which is the preliminary engineering and environmental studies phase. Phase I is expected to wrap up with a final report in mid-2024 before moving into Phase II.
The bridge replacement study includes about six miles of roadway from the I-88/I-80 interchange in East Moline to 35th St. SW in LeClaire.
There will be a video presentation, followed by comments from the DOT representatives and project consultant team. There will also be a question-and-answer session.
The I-80 Mississippi River Bridge website describes the project history as such:
The I-80 Mississippi River Bridge was built in the 1960s and is one of three major interstate bridges in the Quad Cities. The bridge has required significant repairs and rehabilitation in recent years and traffic is increasing with associated increases in vehicular crashes. The aging bridge continues to face costly maintenance expenses, and the roadway design does not meet current standards.
In April 2020, Illinois and Iowa conducted an online public meeting to introduce a Planning and Environment Linkages study of the bridge and corridor. Based on public feedback and additional study, a second public meeting was held in May 2022, to present a range of reasonable improvement alternatives for the I-80 Mississippi River Bridge, and for the I-88/I-80 interchange. A third public meeting was held in October 2022, to present a narrowed list of improvement alternatives for public review and comment.