Rock Run Crossing progress hinges on interchange

Roads, utilities and even pads for buildings will start next year as the Rock Run Crossings development is timed to coincide with the opening of a new interchange, a development manager for the project said.

Cullinan Properties is timing development with expectation of a late 2023 opening of the Interstate 55 interchange, Development Manager Jim Testin said.

The Illinois Department of Transportation has not publicly stated an expected completion date for the interchange, although advance work for the project started this spring.

The first signs of intersection construction have been noticed, Testin said.

“We’re starting to get a lot more interest in the site from restaurants, from the hotel people,” he said.

Testin spoke about the project Thursday after a meeting of the Joliet Plan Commission, which gave unanimous approval to a final plat that next goes to the City Council for final approval.

“It’s going to be good for Joliet,” said Plan Commissioner Robert Wunderlich, noting he had previously met with Cullinan representatives when he was a trustee at Joliet Junior College. The college is located east of the site.

“Good for taxes and good for JJC,” Wunderlich said of Rock Run Crossings. “Good for jobs.”

The plan to build a destination site that would attract shoppers, diners and entertainment seekers from a wide region because of the location at the crossings of Interstates 55 and 80 always has been appealing.

The 263-acre site also in envisioned for office buildings, multifamily housing, and industrial development on the east end nearest to the Rock Run Business Park.

But enthusiasm has waned with the lack of progress over the years as a first developer was stymied by the 2008 recession, and Cullinan held a groundbreaking ceremony in March 2019 that has yet to be followed by construction.

Plans have always depended on the interchange to provide a way for the estimated 230,000 vehicles that pass it daily to get onto the site.

“Access has always been a central aspect of that site,” Testin said. “Based on the guidelines we’re getting from IDOT (Illinois Department of Transportation), they’re looking at the end of 2023 for the opening of that interchange.”

IDOT has not publicly given a target opening for the interchange, which would rebuild an existing Route 59 interchange to provide access to the Rock Run site in the northeast corner of I-55 and I-80.

Advance work on the interchange began this spring, but IDOT has yet to seek bids for the contract to build it.

“Until the overall interchange contract is let we will not be able to provide an overall completion date for the interchange,” IDOT spokeswoman Maria Castaneda said this week.

Castaneda said the interchange is included in IDOT’s 2022-2027 highway program, and engineering is aimed at contracting construction in the early years of that program “contingent upon plan readiness and land acquisition.”

Cullinan plans to seek requests for proposals in the next few months for a contractor to begin building roads and utilities next year, Testin said.

There has been significant grading on the site this year that has included the creation of a storm water detention are on the east end of the site.