Jefferson St. bridge closed until October, Joliet leaders begin push for state action

The Jefferson Street bridge now will be closed until October, and city officials are launching a campaign to get something done about the chronically closed gateway to downtown Joliet.

The 1930s-era drawbridge was closed in June by the state, which maintains the downtown bridges, for maintenance initially scheduled to be completed in two months. But the reopening date has been repeatedly pushed back.

City Manager James Capparelli told the City Council on Tuesday that it’s time for a new bridge.

“I’m going to leave no stone unturned in trying get a new bridge built over that river,” Capparelli said after informing the council of the new October reopening date.

The last estimated reopening was April, but Capparelli said he heard this week that the date was pushed back to October.

Drawing a comparison to Allied armies crossing rivers in Europe during World War II in victory over Germany, Capparelli said, “Yet somehow the Des Plaines River presents an insurmountable obstacle for the state of Illinois and the bridge.”

The new date means the bridge will have been closed for nearly a year and a half if it reopens in October.

Both Capparelli and Mayor Bob O’Dekirk said the prolonged bridge closure has hurt downtown business and has hampered the city’s efforts to redevelop the central business district.

O’Dekirk said he will have a news conference on Friday at the bridge with other local leaders.

“We’re going to have a call for action Friday on specific things we want the state to do on the bridge they own,” O’Dekirk said.

The mayor noted that the Jefferson Street bridge has been closed down several times for repairs.

“I think we’re done talking about it,” O’Dekirk said. “We need movement on it.”

Among specific actions the mayor wants is the conversion of the Cass Street bridge, now a one-way bridge heading west, into a two-way bridge while the Jefferson Street bridge is out of commission. He noted it was done once before when the Jefferson Street bridge was closed for repairs.

The prolonged closing of the bridge is due in large part to its age and the need to create custom-made parts for repairs once they are identified.

“I’ve been told they have to fabricate a part,” Capparelli said. “But by this time, they could have built a whole new bridge.”

Whether the state would actually build a new drawbridge is questionable.

Joliet is one of the few locations in the state to have movable bridges.

They are needed in Joliet because the Des Plaines River is used by barges, and the bridges are raised to allow barges to pass. Officials have said that building a non-movable bridge with enough height to allow barges to pass below would require a longer bridge that would overpass the entire downtown.