Project Summary
The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) selected Hanson to redesign a portion of Interstate 74 (I-74) — part of a $500 million project. Hanson provided final design engineering services for the complex 1.7-mile four-lane section of I-74 in Peoria’s downtown central business district.
Illinois I-74 serves as the main commuter route to and from Peoria’s downtown area and is a crucial component of East Peoria’s industrial center. Originally designed and constructed during the late 1950s, I-74 is one of the oldest roadways on the Illinois interstate system.
Hanson’s services included preparing plans, specifications and estimates for the complete reconstruction of I-74 from Sheridan Road to the Illinois River. Our team designed the mainline pavement replacement, interchange reconstruction, highway and street drainage, parking lots, and sanitary sewers.
Hanson’s portion of the design section also included 10 bridges and two urban-type interchanges. The bridge design work included complete removal and replacement of existing structures as well as new structures with challenging alignments.
A major component of this project was planning and designing more than 60 retaining walls of varying types including secant pile walls, tangent pile walls, pile and lagging walls, MSE walls and conventional walls.
Hanson also provided design services for arterial roadways along I-74, redesigning the city arterial roadway system to accommodate motorists while the interstate was closed during construction. The arterial road design included both permanent and temporary traffic control design.
IDOT and Hanson worked to address access concerns throughout the project. With two major hospitals located within the project limits, the team addressed critical hospital access issues throughout the design and construction portions of the project. The team also rerouted pedestrians away from construction activities while maintaining a pedestrian route.
Additionally, Hanson performed a sidewalk usage and availability study to evaluate accessibility for the disabled. Using the study results, our team designed sidewalks to meet the needs of patrons with disabilities and comply with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements.
Hanson served as the contract-packaging consultant for three major IDOT contracts, incorporating design work from IDOT and other consultants into final contract documents for this project.
As a condition of the contract, Hanson assisted IDOT and contractors during the construction phase of the project by answering questions and/or assisting with design issues. One construction company requested Hanson to assist with a complex design issue — removal of 180 feet of the Murray Baker Bridge truss.