Joliet Township opens new bridge in Sugar Creek subdivision

Joliet Township officials and Sugar Creek residents celebrated the opening of a new bridge on Monday.

The new bridge on Sugar Creek Road provides a smoother pathway for both motorists and walkers, officials and residents said.

The bridge over Sugar Creek replaces a structure built in 1980 that had deteriorated to the point that it could not be repaired, Township Highway Commissioner Vincent Alessio said.

“We couldn’t keep patching it because the beams were shifting,” Alessio said. “So, the only way to fix it was to replace it.”

The shifting beams made it impossible for patching to hold, he said.

Sugar Creek resident Gerry Hamilton said the patches and potholes were characteristic of the old bridge.

“The old bridge had a lot of patches,” Hamilton said. “They would fill them in, but those patches didn’t last long.”

Hamilton and some of her neighbors enjoy walks in the subdivision that is characterized by shady trees, winding streets, and the creek that gives the community its name.

Even the bridge sidewalk would develop holes, Hamilton said. The new bridge has wider sidewalks along with a newly paved road surface.

The project cost $2.3 million and includes drainage improvements that Allesio said were designed to prevent flooding on Sugar Creek Road.

The project was paid for with $1.8 million in state Rebuild Illinois funds and state Motor Fuel Tax dollars, Allesio said. Township highway funds provided the other $500,000.

“It’s an important project,” he said in brief comments before a ribbon was cut to open the bridge. “It’s a project that couldn’t be done without units of government coming together.”

He said the township got help from Will County along with the state in getting access to outside money to pay for the project.

The bridge replacement was three years in the making, largely because of environmental concerns that needed to be addressed with state regulators looking at the potential impact on Sugar Creek.

Alessio said two new culverts were installed to improve drainage, but they had to be designed and located in such a way to satisfy regulators concerns that they would not lead to erosion in the creek.

Sugar Creek was developed in the mid-1950s.

The bridge and Sugar Creek Road make up “an artery that is very important to the community for safety and school buses,” said Marge Fleet, a member of the Laraway School Board.

Fleet has lived in Sugar Creek since 1960, and “this is the third bridge” built over the creek on Sugar Creek Road, she said.

Times have changed, she noted.

“The first bridge was a one-lane bridge,” Fleet said.