Drivers along Interstate 88 may have noticed a difference at the DeKalb Oasis. The orange “Restaurant Closed for Improvements” sings have disappeared into the boiling July air.

McDonald’s, Starbucks Coffee and Travel Mart all opened for business at the oasis last week.

The timetable for completion of the second phase of construction at the DeKalb Oasis is still up in the air.

“By late summer, early fall we expect the entire facility to be open,” said Joelle McGinnis, spokeswoman for the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority.

McGinnis said the oasis, near the Peace Road exit, was built in the 1970s. For this reason the oasis did not get completely torn down as the other six oases in the Illinois tollway system were. They were built in the 1950s.

The oasis reconstruction was part of a $100 million deal between the state and California-based developer Wilton Partners. No state money was used in the project.

Wilton Partners is seeking to add other tenants to the DeKalb Oasis.

“Not every tenant is open at every oasis but every oasis is open,” McGinnis said. “With all of these projects the goal was not to have any of the oases completely without services.”

Of the seven oases on Illinois tollways, four reopened last year. Two reopened this summer and the Lincoln Oasis in South Holland is slated to open in January.

“We opened the first two oases knowing that our list of tenants would grow,” said Scott Mayer, president of Wilton Partners.

The entire tollway oasis project created about 700 construction jobs, McGinnis said. When completely finished the seven oases will provide about 500 permanent jobs in the retail and maintenance sector.