If you’ve been taking the long detour around downtown Belleville to avoid the road closure on North Illinois Street, the straighter route is now available to you again.

Work on the Norfolk and Southern Railroad tracks on the crossing near Douglas Avenue shut down all four lanes, north and south, since Monday morning. The road has been reopened overnight in time to handle Friday morning traffic.

The posted detour channeled commuters away from the work site and downtown by directing them east on IL 161 to Green Mount Road then back again on IL 158. Locals knew more direct, back-road routes to get them across the tracks.

Attempts to reach Norfolk and Southern Railroad to get details of the work being performed were unsuccessful, but a representative from Warning Lites of Southern Illinois, the company contracted by the railroad to secure the tracks and install warning signs about the road closures, said generally that the crossing was “being improved and repaired” and that he expected a “smoother ride” across the tracks.