Infrastructure

The micro ecosystems are popular around the world but haven’t gained footing in the St. Louis region. Some people hope they could lessen the impacts of floods.

The regional engineer for the Illinois Department of Transportation said he'd hoped the project would be complete by August or early September. “But if things continue to go well, we expect it could be opened much earlier,” he said.

The project is carved up into segments. The first section tackled will be a 20-mile stretch in mid-Missouri between Columbia and Kingdom City.

The district north of Alton in Fosterburg township will soon break ground on the water treatment plant and more than 50 miles of pipe to connect to six other communities and water districts.

To date, only 4% of the money sought for projects to help the city of Cahokia Heights address its flooding and sewage crisis has been spent, according to an EPA analysis.

While celebrating a new administration building for Madison County Transit, the Democratic governor criticized the symbolic referendum that county voters will consider this November.

Officials and lawyers representing the city said Cahokia Heights had still not received most of the funding.

The coordinator, Beth Murphy, said a key accomplishment — what she calls the “matrix” — details ongoing construction projects, plus future construction and funding, to fix the chronic water issues plaguing the Metro East community.

Replacing the sewer line is an essential step in fixing Cahokia Heights' faulty system that's left residents with backed-up toilets, flooded basements and standing water in their yards.

Illinois is receiving more than $75 million through Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to help reclaim and revitalize abandoned mine lands across the state — including the Metro East.