State transportation and local officials broke ground Monday in Marion on a $10-Million widening project for I-57.
Governor Pat Quinn joined state and local officials for the ceremony. The project is part of the current phase in the on-going reconstruction of the I-57 interchange at Marion. It adds a third traffic lane between Marion and Johnston City. Quinn says the lane expansion should be completed by December. He says it will make it easier for people to get to work and to school as well as bring jobs and economic growth to southern Illinois. According to I-DOT traffic estimates more than 40-thousand cars and trucks travel I-57 daily between Marion and Mt. Vernon.
The lane widening is part of more than 60-million dollars in road construction projects underway in the region.
