Looks like it will be Joliet’s bridge

Joliet appears to be on its way to becoming the owner of the future Houbolt Road bridge.

The estimated $160 million bridge project over the Des Plaines River was announced in 2016 as a private-public partnership in which CenterPoint Properties would build and own the bridge.

Construction start dates have been pushed back several times.

And now construction is waiting for the completion of a lease agreement under which Joliet likely will own the bridge and lease it to the private investment group assembled by CenterPoint to build and operate it.

The private group still would pay for the bridge and maintain it, CenterPoint CEO Michael Murphy said.

“Joliet will have no financial risk at all,” Murphy said.

Murphy and city officials said public ownership is needed to get Interstate Commerce Commission approval for the bridge to cross over BNSF railroad tracks.

“The original goal before the ICC ruling was for it to be 100 percent privately owned,” interim Joliet City Manager Steve Jones said. “But with the ruling, that pretty much made it impossible.”

The final ICC decision apparently awaits the completion of the lease agreement between the city and CenterPoint.

Lease negotiations

The agreement should spell out the terms of ownership, financial responsibilities and distribution of toll revenues.

The bridge is to be a toll bridge, with toll revenues paying off construction costs over time.

Will County, which has the authority to set the tolls, is preparing to present a proposal for toll rates to the County Board for a vote either later this month or in December.

The city is trying to get the lease agreement ready for a City Council vote in December.

“Our goal is by the end of this year to have an agreement finalized,” Assistant City Attorney Chris Regis said. “It is very complicated.”

He said negotiations with CenterPoint began months ago.

Neither side has publicly announced that it was negotiating to put bridge ownership in the hands of Joliet. City officials and Murphy last week were reluctant to discuss details of the arrangement while still negotiating its terms.

“I certainly hope we will have an announcement to make and will be voting on it by the end of the year,” Mayor Bob O’Dekirk said.

Public-private venture

O’Dekirk joined Gov. Bruce Rauner when he came to Joliet in July 2016 to announce the project with expectations that construction could start in 2017.

The concept of a Houbolt Road bridge already had been pitched for some time by local officials, and O’Dekirk made it a top priority when first elected in 2015. Officials believe it will relieve much of the truck traffic now going onto Route 53 and local roads by providing a direct path between the CenterPoint Intermodal Center and Interstate 80.

The state will spend an estimated $32 million to widen Houbolt Road and build a new interchange at I-80 to accommodate traffic from the bridge.

The bridge was to be built with “private investment – no public money,” Rauner said when announcing the project.

That still appears likely to be the case.

“That’s part of the negotiations,” Jones said when asked if the city will end up bearing any costs for the bridge. “The goal there is that the answer would be no.”

The lease agreement is not the first accommodation made for the public-private nature of the bridge project.

The Illinois General Assembly in the spring passed legislation to ensure that the private group that owns the bridge does not end up paying property taxes on the structure.

“CenterPoint wanted a property tax exemption on the [bridge] roadway, because if they actually owned the road, that would be property and they would be taxed on that,” said state Rep. Larry Walsh Jr., D-Elwood, who worked on the legislation.

Walsh said the legislation, Senate Bill 158, along with public ownership is needed to ensure the bridge is not taxed and can operate as a toll bridge.

Murphy said Friday that if a lease agreement is completed this year, there could be a groundbreaking in January.