O'FALLON, Ill. — A two-mile stretch of road in St. Clair County, Illinois, is a big inconvenience, causing major delays and leaving tens of thousands of people beyond frustrated. It’s an $8 million project on the Frank Scott Parkway.
Seems more and more people want to live in St. Clair County, Illinois, bringing more drivers and more congestion.
A two-mile stretch of Frank Scott Parkway in Shiloh and O'Fallon is being widened from two lanes to five. The problem is: For the last month, drivers tell us no one’s been working on it, and a large portion is still closed to traffic.
“There's no truck, no construction. It's just all blocked off," said Matt Howard, a local driver.
Howard wants to know why, especially because he says the new lanes look done.
“Our kids go to the orthodontist right there in the middle of it. It's a pain in the butt," said Howard.
He expects his kids to be out of braces before the road opens. For others, it’s more than just an inconvenience.
“An ambulance had its lights going and was trying to get past and nobody could get around the cones to get off to the right side of the road," said Emma Hardina, another driver in the area.
Drivers in St. Clair County certainly feel the strain.
About 16,000 drivers pass through here every day. But people say no one is telling them what’s going on. So we went directly to someone in charge.
“So people want to know what's the timeline?” asked the I-Team's Paula Vasan.
“I can't give you a date, but I can tell you it's a lot farther than it was," said Norm Etling, an engineer with St. Clair County. “There's an issue with the concrete right now that we're trying to resolve.”
It's an issue, he said, with some of the pavement poured by Baxmeyer Construction in Waterloo. The problem: 1,400 feet of road is missing reinforcements to make the pavement stronger. The pavement will need to be removed and replaced.
“Is it unsafe?” asked Vasan.
“We're not going to open it up to traffic," said Etling.
Baxmeyer Construction told us in an email: “Nothing to discuss… We are 12 months ahead of schedule.”
“People in the area are concerned and frustrated. What's your response to them?” Vasan asked Etling.
“We appreciate all of their patience so far. And I just ask them to be patient a little bit longer and we can work through this issue," he said. He added that Baxmeyer Construction is a responsible contractor for correcting an unintentional oversight.
Just a few days after we started asking questions, drivers told us they finally started seeing work done again. Crews are ripping out parts of concrete and the plan is to replace it.
We’ve also kept pressing for a timeline. The county engineer tells us he’s hopeful it’ll be finished within a few months.
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