BELLEVILLE — The final part of the South 17th Street extension will open Monday afternoon.

The endeavor to give motorists easy access from West Main Street to Illinois 15 and Frank Scott Parkway took about six years and cost $10.2 million.

The city will officially open the road after a 1 p.m. ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Greater Belleville Chamber of Commerce. The event is on Belleville Crossing Road where the city is building Kimball Plaza in Bicentennial Park.

Mayor Mark Eckert said the road will ease congestion on Frank Scott Parkway, improve safety for students traveling to and from Belleville West High School, and increase accessibility to the car dealerships and Belleville Crossing shopping center on Illinois 15.

"This means a lot to the whole area to get this road opened up," Eckert said.

The 17th Street opening is timely because work just began on two new traffic circles on Illinois 158 at Illinois 15 and 13, Eckert said.

Work on the roundabouts will continue through 2014 and includes periodic closures on all three roads.

"Thank goodness we got it done when we did," Eckert said. "It will be a big help for when drivers can't get off there."

The 17th Street extension project has been on Eckert's list of things to do since he became mayor in 2004.

Construction began in 2006 and city officials believed then the final section would be started in 2008. In reality, work on the fourth and last phase of the project did not begin until early this year.

"I never thought it would take quite this long but we knew when we started we had a lot of work to do," Eckert said. "We didn't have the money. We had to do it in phases. But it's been well worth the wait. It's been well worth the struggle."

Eckert said he's proud the city worked to keep Tribout's carnival supply store and the Oliver C. Joseph and Wagner Buick-GMC car dealerships in the city. The city knew the rest of the project would be done in pieces because money had to be secured.

The city first extended the road from Frank Scott Parkway to Illinois 15 at the O.C. Joseph car dealership.

The second part of the work was from 20th Street to the back of Oliver C. Joseph.

Then the city widened the road between West Main Street and Bunsen Avenue. This third phase took the longest because the city had to resolve issues with a railroad crossing, property acquisition and relocating Tribout's, among other things.

The last phase was to extend the road from 20th Street to Bunsen Avenue.

Eckert said the delays did not increase the total cost of the project. Construction prices were competitive because of the state of the economy, Eckert said.

Finance Director Jamie Maitret said the entire project cost about $10.2 million. In 2004, before the project broke ground, city officials estimated the total cost would be about $10 million.

Maitret said the city paid for the project mainly with tax increment financing revenue.

The city also decided in 2011 to add $4.5 million to an existing $14.4 million bond issue passed in 2005 to pay for the last phase of the extension, Maitret said. Most of the bond money was used for downtown streetscape improvements.

The state contributed $1 million for the first two phases. For the widening portion of the project, the state contributed $153,089 and the federal contribution was about $1.8 million.

Contact reporter Jacqueline Lee at jlee@bnd.com or 239-2655. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/BNDBelleville.

Contact reporter Jacqueline Lee at jlee@bnd.com or 239-2655. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/BNDBelleville.