Even though the project is at least several years away, plans are in the works to re-build and widen a historic highway in northwestern Illinois. Thursday the Illinois Department of Transportation will hold an open house to talk about US 30 in Whiteside County - from Fulton to Morrison.
Project Engineer, Rebecca Marruffo, says this 24-mile section was originally built about 1920 as part of the Lincoln Highway, the first coast-to-coast highway in the US. Expanding it to four lanes would allow for increased traffic and improve safety.
She says some sections of the possible new route follow the current Highway 30, but others do not. Planners eventually will also have to decide whether to build a bypass around Morrison.
Marruffo says the DOT is working now on the environmental impact statement, and once that's finished sometime next year, then design work could begin. But since there's no money set aside for that yet, design and construction could not start for several years or more.
The open house will be held Thursday at the Odell Library in Morrison, from 1 to 7 pm.
