DeKalb city to reopen Lucinda Avenue bridge to traffic, work delayed until 2024

DeKALB – The city of DeKalb intends to reverse course on plans to block access points to the Lucinda Avenue bridge and will fully reopen the road to traffic by the end of next week.

The timing of the city’s decision is meant to coincide with the start of classes at Northern Illinois University, which will be in session for the fall semester beginning Aug. 28.

City Engineer Zac Gill said a lot of careful thought went into the judgment call made by the city.

“We have made the decision based on the continued failure of utility responses that we will not be able to reasonably complete the bridge work this year,” Gill said. “In consultation with the leadership of the city, [the Illinois Department of Transportation] contractor and so forth, we have decided that we will suspend our city-controlled portion of the project for this year. The utilities will continue to work on their relocations through the end of the summer and the fall.”

Beginning next week, the city intends to start efforts to clean up the site around the Lucinda Avenue bridge and suspend the detour route.

We have made the decision based on the continued failure of utility responses that we will not be able to reasonably complete the bridge work this year.”

—  City Engineer Zac Gill

Gill said the private utility companies will continue working behind the scenes to resolve utility conflicts.

“They are still working on mobilizing to remove their conflicts,” Gill said. “These have all been known and identified conflicts since March of 2022. … Most of their plans, from what I’ve seen, I’ve already approved all their permits for what needs to be done. It’s just literally getting the boots on the ground. So, we are continuing to pressure them to bring this to fruition and get their utilities that are in the public space out of the way for the public project.”

The city’s portion of the bridge removal and replacement is expected to resume in spring 2024, officials said.

Gill pointed blame for the project’s delay on the private utility companies.

“This is 1,000% the fault of the private utilities,” Gill said. “None of it bears at all on the city, our engineers or the contractor. … We were actually under budget and ahead of schedule until the private utilities failed to act responsibility.”

Gill said he’s optimistic that the project will be completed without additional delay on top of what is already expected.

“From what I’ve heard, they will be able to have this all concluded by the calendar year, which means when we come back in the spring, we will have an absolutely clear, unimpeded path to pursue our bridge work independent of outside influence and should be able to snap through it relatively quickly come the spring,” he said.

Progress made by crews working on the First Street bridge remains on track for completion by the end of October.

The two bridges are part of a single contract that the city obtained trying to save money on project costs, officials said.