What started with a grassroots movement to make a rural highway safer for commuters developed into a project whose design provides benefits to farmers, environmentalists, and fitness enthusiasts.

CMT was retained by the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) to provide Phase II design services for the expansion of a 5.2-mile section of Illinois Route 29. CMT had previously completed prior project phases including the feasibility study, Phase I design, and environmental assessment.

The transformation of a treacherous stretch of IL-29 from a two-lane highway to a four-lane expressway was met triumphantly by a group of citizens that had fervently advocated a safer route. Detention ponds, an uncommon feature on rural highways, are used as part of a unique drainage system that provides flood control in an agricultural area with little natural relief. The highway’s shifting alignment carefully avoids areas of endangered Illinois native prairie grass. And an abandoned railroad that runs along the roadway will find new life as a bike trail.

This project received a Special Achievement Award from ACEC-Illinois.