A short stretch of Interstate 70 near Altamont, Illinois is getting a $5.5 million overhaul that captures two separate infrastructure problems at once: an aging interstate built more than 60 years ago and an abandoned railroad bridge that has been straddling the highway long after the trains stopped running.
The federal grant, awarded March 3 through the National Highway Performance Program, covers reconstruction of the roadway and replacement of a bridge along roughly 0.8 miles of I-70 east of the Altamont interchange in Effingham County. It also funds the removal of a defunct railroad overpass that crosses the corridor, a relic of the region's once-dense rural rail network.
Abandoned railroad bridges like this one are a persistent headache across the rural Midwest. When freight consolidation gutted local rail lines over the past half-century, the bridges didn't disappear with them. They still require inspections and can pose risks from falling debris or gradual structural failure, costing money for infrastructure that serves no purpose.
The interstate itself is aging just as visibly. I-70 was one of the original highways designated in 1956, and Illinois's segment was largely complete by the early 1960s. Bridges built in that era were designed for a 50-year lifespan and traffic loads well below what they carry today. Illinois has roughly 8 percent of its 26,000-plus bridges classified as structurally deficient, earning the state a C- grade from engineers who track such things.
Altamont is a small community of about 2,200 people, but the highway running through it handles far more than local traffic. The I-70 corridor connects St. Louis to Indianapolis and passes through Effingham, 15 miles to the east, where I-70 and I-57 intersect to form one of the more significant freight crossroads in downstate Illinois.
The $5.5 million represents the federal share of the project. The National Highway Performance Program typically requires Illinois to cover 10 to 20 percent of costs, putting the likely total somewhere between $6.2 million and $6.9 million. The funding flows from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which allocated roughly $148 billion nationally for highway performance programs over five years. Similar federal investments have been funding overdue fixes on aging interstates across the country, including a $3 million pavement repair on I-86 near Owego, New York and overpasses on US-69 in Durant, Oklahoma.
A construction timeline for the Altamont project has not been publicly announced.
