DeKALB – The Lucinda bridge is expected to reopen on Sept. 20 after delays shifted the timeline for work to be completed by one year.
The overpass closed for construction in March of 2023.
The bridge, built in 1954, was at the end of its life cycle. Bridges have lifespans of 50 to 75 years.
Zac Gill, City Engineer, said the best solution was to rebuild the bridge entirely.
“We removed every structural component all the way down to the base of the river bank,” Gill said. “We basically built this thing like there wasn’t a bridge there to start with. Essentially, we started from scratch.”
The bridge was rebuilt as part of Illinois’ Major Bridge Program. The Major Bridge Program was initiated in 2009 and provided $28 billion in federal, state and local funding for infrastructure projects.
The Lucinda and First Street bridge projects were combined, according to Gill. The plans for the project were completed in spring 2022.
Major construction for the bridge was originally planned for spring 2023, but utility work delays caused a one-year postponement.
“When we first got in there in ‘23 there were some significant utility conflicts,” Gill said. “Some of them are power lines, gas lines that are owned by private third parties. We realized that their schedule was not going to be met.”
Gill said as a result of the delays, the bridge was reopened prior to the fall 2023 semester to allow the public to use it through the winter.
“That’s part of the reason we didn’t remove the bridge early because we weren’t confident they would have the utilities out of the way for us to reconstruct it,” Gill said. “Instead of leaving a huge gap, leaving the bridge tore down for no good reason over the winter while they weren’t going to relocate the utilities anyway until the following spring, we just reopened it.”
Major construction for the project was completed this spring.
“What we did then is they (the contractor) come in and they smash apart the deck, and pull that (the deck) out, and they go down and rip all the former columns and piers and everything that were in the river and that were tied into the riverbank before, so they completely remove everything, and then they start from scratch,” Gill said.
The contract for the work was granted by the state and was won by Herlihy Mid-Continent Company. The budget for the Lucinda and First Street bridge projects is $5.2 million.
