(Video of the groundbreaking will soon be posted on www.midwest.construction.com) A host of dignitaries, including U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, were on hand at St. Louis� Eades Street Bridge April 19 for the symbolic groundbreaking of the new $667 million Mississippi River Bridge. Photo: Sam Barnes U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood addresses a large gathering at the groundbreaking for the new Mississippi River Bridge in St. Louis. Also pictured is Missouri Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Rahn, far left. Construction of the bridge, about 1 mi north of the groundbreaking site, is currently suspended due to high water

Mayor Greg Ballard signed a memorandum of understanding in March to transfer the city's utilities to Citizens Energy Group, which operates a natural gas distribution company and a district steam heating and chilled water provider in Indianapolis. Ballard wants to use the $425 million the city would get from the transfer for infrastructure construction. Once the proposal gets all the necessary approvals, the city would receive $262.6 million payment from Citizens in two installments, plus up to an additional $50 million from the wastewater general fund that will remain with the city after the transfer. "It will allow us to

U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorson told local lawmakers and union workers Tuesday that the Illiana Expressway must be built from I-65 to I-55, and she called it Illinois� �next No. 1 project.� Photo by Paula Widholm From left, U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorson and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood also told the group gathered at a union training facility in Wilmington, Ill., that Chicago�s far southwest suburbs are �well-positioned for opportunity in the next transportation bill.� The Illiana Expressway originally was slated as a 25-mi highway from I-65 to I-57 but many lawmakers now seek to extend it another

JEFFERSON CITY � The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission today announced the resignation of Pete Rahn as director of the Missouri Department of Transportation. Rahn�s resignation will be effective April 23, 2010. �It�s with a very heavy heart that we have accepted Pete�s resignation,� says Rudy Farber, chairman of the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission. �We want to thank him for his outstanding service to Missouri and certainly wish him well in his new career and in having more quality time to spend with his family.: �His innovative and highly effective leadership was exactly what was needed to handle the

The Missouri Department of Transportation plans to auction off property located across the state that it no longer needs to help finance road and bridge construction. MoDOT is looking to unload 34 pieces of property, ranging from a quarter of an acre in size to 200 acres. "We're hoping for a fair market value for the properties," says Gregory Wood, MoDOT�s Realty to Roads project director. In total, more than 600 acres will be on the block from April 26-30. All the money raised will go back into road and bridge construction. This is not the first time MoDOT has

CHICAGO�James McHugh Construction Co. of Chicago has substantially completed reconstruction of the original 10-span arch bridge over the Fox River on the Reagan Memorial Tollway (I-88) six months ahead of schedule. The span replicates the original 1958 bridge with a series of five arches, rarely seen in modern infrastructure construction. McHugh completed a virtually identical new eastbound bridge in 2008. The two bridges increase traffic capacity to three lanes with full shoulders in each direction instead of two under the Illinois Tollway�s $6.3 billion Congestion Relief Program. Under the original contract, the bridge was slated for completion in May 2010;

On March 15, the Oak Park, Ill., Village Board of Trustees formally approved the agreement that will enable Sertus Capital Partners LLC of Chicago to move forward on plans to build a new $85-million hotel/retail/condo/parking building in the heart of this Chicago suburb. Rendering courtesy of Village of Oak Park, Ill. Bird's Eye View Looking Southwest The 20-story glass tower at the corner of Lake Street and Forest Avenue would be the tallest building in Oak Park. Monday�s agreement gives the developers about four months to demolish the building it owns at the location, 18 months to begin construction and

Magellan Development Group broke ground on March 1 for a 105,000-sq-ft retail center at the Lakeshore East master planned community in downtown Chicago. 

A bill that paves the way for a public-private partnership to design, build and operate the $1.1 billion Illiana Expressway through Indiana and Illinois unanimously passed the Indiana Senate 42-0 on March 2. Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is expected to sign the bill in the next two weeks. The 25-mi expressway � about 10 mi in Indiana � would provide an east-west bypass for truck traffic and commuters south of Chicago by linking I-65 in Indiana with either I-57 or I-55 in Illinois. The bill authorizes the Indiana Finance Authority to search for a private investor to finance the design

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has added the Chemetco site, a closed copper smelter in Hartford, Ill., and the Lake Calumet Cluster site in Chicago, to the Superfund National Priorities List. Superfund is the federal program that investigates and cleans up the most complex and uncontrolled hazardous waste sites in the U.S. The Chemetco site is on Illinois Route 3 in Madison County, about 2 mi south of Hartford. It was a secondary copper smelter from 1969 to 2001 before filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy. More than 500,000 cu yds of processing slag, sludge and other hazardous materials were left on portions