I-80 Houbolt Road interchange in Joliet will be closed overnight Friday

The Houbolt Road interchange at Interstate 80 in Joliet is scheduled to close Friday night and reopen as a new diverging diamond interchange Saturday morning.

Houbolt Road also will be closed during that time between Rock Creek Boulevard and Mound Road.

Weather permitting, the work overnight will mark one of the last steps in the Houbolt Road, bridge and interchange project, which has been under construction since March 2021 and is designed to create a new connection for trucks moving between I-80 and the CenterPoint Intermodal Center.

The plan is to close the interchange at 9 p.m. Friday and reopen it at 10 a.m. Saturday with the new diverging diamond interchange in operation.

“It will be operational, weather permitting,” Joliet Public Works Director Greg Ruddy said.

Traffic signals will be tested during the closing. The new lanes that outline the diverging diamond traffic patterns will be striped.

The potential glitch is that rain could delay the final striping needed to outline the lane configurations for the new interchange. In that case, the existing interchange will be put back to use until the striping can be done.

Otherwise, the diverging diamond interchange “will be substantially complete” but for cleanup work that will still need to be done, Ruddy said.

The Houbolt Road section of the project also will need to be completed, which Ruddy said should be done in three to four weeks.

The project, overseen by the city and mostly funded by the state, converts the interchange to a diverging diamond design and widens Houbolt Road south to the new toll bridge that opened in April.

Diverging diamond intersections “have unique traffic patterns with crossovers at both of the ramps,” according to a news release from the city. “They increase the capacity of the interchange and improve the safety by eliminating turning movements that cross opposing traffic.”

The project includes the widening of Houbolt Road between the interchange and Route 6.

A new traffic signal is being installed at Houbolt and Mound Road. It is expected to be operating within a few weeks.

The interchange and road widening project cost $30.4 million. The state covered most of the cost, while Joliet paid $2.5 million to add features including water main improvements, a traffic signal at Mound Road, and additional street lights. The interchange and road widening portion of the project began in April 2022. Bridge construction began in March 2021.

The road widening and interchange reconstruction is tied to the Houbolt Road bridge over the Des Plaines River, which opened in April and provided a new connection for trucks traveling between I-80 and the CenterPoint Intermodal Center.

The bridge is operated by Houbolt Road Extension, a private joint venture between CenterPoint Properties and United Bridge Partners. Houbolt Road Extension also built the bridge, which became the property of the city of Joliet upon completion.

Houbolt Road Extension would not provide traffic counts to indicate how much the bridge is used.

But it did issue a statement saying there “has been steady growth in traffic” since the bridge opened April 27 and expected continued increase in use of the bridge with the completion of the I-80 intersection.

“The highly anticipated completion and opening of the new Houbolt Road I-80 diverging diamond interchange, together with the Houbolt Road Extension, will provide drivers with a delay-free route that saves time, miles, and money,” according to the statement. “We expect to see an increase in traffic through this corridor and a decrease in truck traffic on local roads. We look forward to providing the efficiency and reliability that our bridge was designed for.”