GRANITE CITY, Ill. – Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker will be in the metro east later Thursday morning focusing on a major Mississippi River bridge expansion project.

Governor Pritzker is set to speak on the plans for a new Chain of Rocks Bridge at 10:00 a.m. A release from the Governor’s Office said he is making a stop there Tuesday to celebrate the improvements coming to the bridge.    

IDOT is in charge of building the new Chain of Rocks Bridge. The first phase of preliminary engineering and environmental study has already been done. Phase two which focuses on contract plans and land acquisition is underway now.

Phase three will be the main construction part of the project. The plans are to build two new twin bridges.

One of the new bridges will be on the same alignment as the current Chain of Rocks Bridge. The other one will be directly south of the existing bridge.

The new southern bridge will be constructed first and traffic will be shifted there before the existing Chain of Rocks of Bridge is torn down. Then the northern bridge will be built where the existing bridge is currently located.

The new Chain of Rocks Bridge will have wider shoulders than the existing bridge, and it will be wide enough to accommodate the expansion of I-270 in north St. Louis County.

The current Chain of Rocks Bridge was built back in 1966. It currently carries more than 51,000 vehicles every day.