Three blocks of Washington Street in downtown Peoria will be open from Walnut to Liberty June 12th. Those traveling in Downtown Peoria have navigated the construction on Washington Street for more than a year.
Peoria City Engineer Scott Reeise says the $13 million road project is expected to be completely drivable by July 31st with finishing touches complete by Labor Day. That includes five more blocks from Persimmon to Walnut.
Reeise says there’s an additional wrinkle coming for downtown drivers. “we’ll be coming out fairly soon with a date as far as when we’re going to make Jefferson two-way between Walnut and Persimmon to allow for construction of the city half of Adams Street. That’s probably one of the most important things for people to realize.”
Reeise says making Jefferson two-way will be a big change for people after 60 years of the street being one-way. But he says the work the city is doing on Adams Street should be complete by Thanksgiving and at this point they are planning to resume one-way traffic on Jefferson.
The Washington Street project is being funded with state grant money. The Adams and Jefferson Streets were Tiger II projects. Combining the improvements mean a more than $26 Million investment in the downtown Warehouse District.