NORMAL - Project engineers need more information from the public before they can select one of three options for a possible east-side highway.

On Tuesday at Normal Community High School, engineers from the Champaign-based engineering firm Clark-Dietz held the seventh public meeting about the proposed highway that could be built in an area east of Bloomington-Normal and connect Interstates 74 and 55.

Since March 2007, the engineers have used a method to study if and where the highway should be built that takes into consideration public information. Earlier this year a citizens' group helped to identify four possible corridors and then narrowed the selection to three.

Aside from the three corridors is the option not to build at all.

A fourth corridor, which would use the Lexington-LeRoy Blacktop, is the farthest east from the Twin Cities. It was eliminated as a choice because it would not help employees and residents move around the east side effectively, said Jerry Payonk from Clark-Dietz.

"The goal of the highway will be to address infrastructure needs for the community as well as accommodate its growth and provide better mobility," Payonk told the roughly 150 people who attended Tuesday's meeting.

In conducting the study, the various groups have to consider what traffic counts will be in 2035, Payonk said. As an example, Payonk said traffic counts through Downs and Towanda are expected to almost triple if the option not to build at all is selected.

The two villages have a daily traffic count of about 5,000 cars a day, but those counts would increase to about 13,000 a day in Downs and 18,000 a day in Towanda.

Clark-Dietz will be collecting opinions about the remaining three options until Aug. 12. That information will go to the study's project group, which is made up of local and state planners and engineers.

Payonk said it is possible the project group will meet at the end of August to select an option for the highway.

The $1.2 million highway study is funded through about $900,000 in federal grants and $300,000 in local matching money from McLean County, the town of Normal and the city of Bloomington.

On the Web:

www.eastsidehighway.com.