Construction on the long-awaited $30 million reconstruction of U.S. 150 through east Galesburg cannot start before 2029, IDOT officials told residents and business owners at the first public open house Thursday evening at King Elementary School.
When work finally begins, the 2.2-mile project will fully rebuild the crumbling roadway from Allens Avenue on East Main Street to the city limits at Knox Road 500 E/County Highway 32 (just past the Logistics Park entrance), add the first continuous sidewalks and shared-use paths along most of Grand Avenue, and fix dangerous skewed intersections.
Timeline: 2029 at the Earliest
Karen Dvorsky, District 4 Program Development Engineer for IDOT, told WGIL the pavement has reached the end of its useful life.
“Our condition rating in 2022 was fair to poor, so it’s time to replace the pavement,” Dvorsky said.
She added that the city and residents are eager for the work to get underway.
“They’re very excited to have the project done,” she said.
She outlined the timeline:
“We’re in Phase I engineering… we expect to finish that study next year,” Dvorsky said. “Then we have at least two years for Phase II engineering — that’s when we do the construction documents, plans and specifications, and we buy the land that we need and do any utility coordination. So we won’t start [construction] no sooner than three years — meaning 2029 at the earliest.”
Driveways and Safety Challenges
Dvorsky said one of the biggest challenges is the dozens of existing driveways — shown as orange trapezoids on the exhibits — and the diagonal path the road cuts through town.
“We have to maintain access to all the residents along the corridor. We have to maintain all access for the businesses,” she said. “Some locations just have access across the whole entire length of their parcel to the street, and that’s just not the safest scenario. We have standards for width of driveways, for commercial and residential, and we try to bring everything up to current standards.”
To shorten the job once it begins, IDOT wants one-way eastbound traffic during the main work seasons.
“On a project like this, it’s very difficult to maintain two-way traffic throughout construction,” Dvorsky explained. “To increase efficiency for the contractor and… get the best safety… it’s best if we just have one lane at one time.”
City Backs One-Way Staging
Galesburg Public Works Director Aaron Gavin said the city has been closely involved from the start and believes the finished product will be a major upgrade.
“They’ve been really good about getting our feedback and bouncing ideas off of us,” Gavin said of IDOT. “Anybody that lives in Galesburg knows the challenges of the roadway and the condition, and lack of pedestrian facilities… The biggest upgrade really is some of the pedestrian improvements and the safety improvements.”
Gavin also endorsed the one-way construction staging: “Stage closures… it’s just a lot slower process and more expensive process. What they’re proposing is a good idea… it’ll allow people to still travel through there, access driveways and businesses, and hopefully shorten the construction time frame and the disruption for everybody.”
Grand Avenue Resident: ‘I’m Looking Forward to the Improvements’
One of the residents who came to see the exhibits was Vicki Mohr, who has lived at 2130 Grand Ave. (across from Dave’s Auto Body) since buying her grandmother’s house in 2020.
“When water settles in there and freezes or snow gets in, those furrows, the snow plows aren’t getting it out,” Mohr told WGIL. “The furrows are so deep that if I have gas in the car that I’ve gotten… I have to go down Grand Avenue to get it. I don’t want to risk spillage… Groceries fall over. I have to just take it slow or get bounced out of the car.”
She’s especially eager for sidewalks that don’t run through her front yard.
“People walk up and down, and it’s my liability insurance,” Mohr said. “I’m looking forward to the sidewalks… I’m looking forward to some new curb and gutters, because it washes up into the yard a bit and already killed my whole row of bushes on Grand Avenue.”
Mohr, whose family ties to the house go back to 1949, added, “I’m looking forward to the improvements for sure.”
The project will deliver full-depth pavement replacement, continuous sidewalks and shared-use paths (currently missing along most of Grand Avenue), safer intersection angles, and upgraded drainage.
A formal public hearing is expected in 2026. Written comments received by Dec. 5, will become part of the official public meeting record. Contact IDOT at: DOT.GrandAveProject@illinois.gov.
