Eldamain Road bridge named for Kendall County Highway Engineer Fran Klaas

Fran Klaas has been planning, designing and overseeing the Eldamain Road bridge project ever since he was named Kendall County’s highway engineer in 1991.

The bridge, now nearly complete after construction began more than a year ago, will establish a new north-south transportation link running between Yorkville and Plano.

“I’ve been working on this literally since I started,” Klaas said.

With Kendall County’s explosive population growth, Klaas has worked on many big roadway projects to serve the increased vehicle traffic, but the Eldamain Road bridge may be his most significant.

The Kendall County Board surprised Klaas on Nov. 29 with a resolution naming the bridge in his honor.

The Francis C. Klaas bridge is expected to open in the spring of 2023, just the eighth Fox River crossing site in Kendall County and the first since the opening of the Orchard Road bridge near Oswego in 2001.

“Typically roads and bridges are named as a memorial,” Klaas told the county board as he accepted the honor, adding that he hoped the distinction is not indicative of his health, drawing laughter from the group.

The resolution naming the bridge for Klaas notes that during his tenure, the county has grown from 40,000 residents to 132,000.

At 1,557 feet, the Eldamain span becomes the county’s longest bridge.

Work on the project was proceeding so rapidly that completion was expected before the end of this year.

Then a quarry workers’ strike during the spring and summer brought production of concrete to a grinding halt across northern Illinois, slowing down the project.

However, work now remains ahead of the original schedule calling for completion of the bridge project by mid-summer 2023.

The new north-south river crossing site is about halfway between the Route 47 bridge in downtown Yorkville and the Fox River Drive bridge just south of Plano, a 5-mile gap.

When the bridge opens, it is expected to change driving patterns and promote economic development in Kendall County

The project extends from River Road just north of the Fox River to Route 71 and farther south on West High Point Road.

The key connection created by the bridge will be from U.S. Route 34 to Illinois Route 71, two of Kendall County’s principal east-west thoroughfares.

At the southern end of the project, drawings have been rendered to show a future Lisbon Road extension, making a connection with Walker Road to the south, but there are no immediate plans to carry out the extension.

To the north, the existing Eldamain Road extends all the way to Kane County.

Eldamain Road is the boundary between Plano and Yorkville. Both municipalities and the county are looking at the road as an engine of economic development.

Motorists traveling the extension south of the bridge will find themselves on a wide-open, two-lane roadway, with the traffic lanes separated by an 18-foot median with concrete curbs. On the outside will be a wide shoulder and an open ditch drainage system.

The extension will intersect with Fox Road, just north of the railroad tracks, at a point where the east-west roadway takes a short jog on a north-south axis, linking with West High Point Road to the south.

Instead of a conventional intersection, the connection at Eldamain and Fox roads will be a roundabout, allowing traffic to flow in one direction around a central island, increasing safety and eliminating the need for a traffic signal.

Initially, the roundabout at Eldamain and Fox roads will have legs on the north, south and west sides. An eastern leg could be added later.

The bridge includes about 5 million pounds of structural steel and 1 million pounds of steel rebar.

The $35 million project came in under the budget estimate by $10 million, Klaas said.

As bid out, the cost of the bridge itself is about $18 million, while the roadwork comes in at another $17 million, Klaas said.

Construction for the bridge structure began March 10, 2021.