Illinois Breaks Ground on $164M Des Plaines River Bridge Replacement Along I-80

The Daily Dig

Construction is underway on a pair of new Interstate 80 bridges over the Des Plaines River in Joliet, Illinois. The $164 million project began construction earlier this month and is the final phase of a $1.3 billion rehabilitation and modernization of I-80 through Will County. The overall I-80 improvements are currently IDOT's largest active project.

Coal City, Illinois-based D Construction is leading construction, with Kansas City, Missouri-based HNTB serving as engineer. The new concrete bridges will be built 300 feet north of the existing structures, which date to the 1960s. The new bridges are expected to be complete in 2028, with the old structures scheduled for demolition in 2029.

The broader corridor project covers 16 miles from Ridge Road in Minooka to U.S. 30 in Joliet and New Lenox. It includes more than 30 bridge rehabilitations or replacements and rebuilt and improved interchanges at I-55, Larkin Avenue, Center Street, Chicago Street, Richards Street, and Briggs Street.

By the end of 2026, approximately 80% of the corridor improvements will be complete. That includes a new third lane opening in each direction across 13 miles between Ridge Road and Illinois 7/Larkin Avenue, and between Richards Street and U.S. 30. Rebuilt interchanges at I-55, Larkin Avenue, and Briggs Street will also be finished by year-end 2026.

The volume of traffic and commerce moving through this corridor puts the project in perspective. I-80 carries approximately 80,000 vehicles per day through Joliet, around 25% of them trucks. The freight value passing through Will County is well over $600 billion annually, and 90,000 regional jobs are tied to transportation and related industries, according to the Will County Center for Economic Development.

TheJobWalk Thoughts

The demolition of the existing bridges is not scheduled until 2029. On a project of this scale, any demolition scope not already included in D Construction's contract will likely surface as a procurement opportunity in the 2027 to 2028 range, as the new spans near completion. Demo contractors and specialty deconstruction firms who start building visibility with the project team now are working a realistic window.

I-80 through Will County carries roughly 25% truck traffic daily on a corridor tied to well over $600 billion in annual freight value. Corridors carrying that kind of commercial load require ongoing maintenance, capacity management, and periodic capital work. For suppliers and BD teams, the question is not whether this region will see more infrastructure spend. It is whether you are already known in that market when the next opportunity surfaces.

This project is part of Rebuild Illinois, a statewide capital program with a pipeline that includes more than 7,100 lane miles of highway and nearly 8.4 million square feet of bridge deck still to be improved across the state. The I-80 corridor is one piece of that larger procurement landscape. Companies that treat this project as an entry point into the IDOT ecosystem, rather than a standalone opportunity, are thinking about it the right way.