By BILL KNIGHT
For The Weekly Post
The Illinois Department of Transportation’s bridge replacement that started this week on Illinois Route 78 just south of Route 8 will disrupt traffic between Elmwood and Farmington for about six months, but the construction is years overdue.
The Kickapoo Creek bridge is one of thousands of “structurally deficient” bridges in Illinois, according to builders, engineers and the Federal Highway Administration (FHA). In addition to replacing the bridge, the $1,080,000 project includes adjusting utilities and buying a strip of property, according to IDOT.
“The land acquisition is for the State of Illinois right of way,” IDOT’s Paul Wappel told The Weekly Post. “Right of way will be used to widen slopes, shoulders and drainage improvements.”
Throughout the project, motorists are being directed to use a marked detour including Elmwood Township’s Graham Chapel Road and South Lilac Street in the City of Elmwood, where the City Council in February agreed to prohibit parking for the duration of the work.
Drivers coming from Yates City and Knox County from the north may use Knox Road 2300-E, known as “Potato Chip Road,” to reach Farmington’s west side.
Illinois has more than 26,000 bridges, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA). That’s the third largest number in the country. Of those, some 8 percent are “structurally deficient,” meaning about 2,300 bridges need work.
That figure is the 4th highest number of structurally deficient bridges in the nation, behind only Iowa, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma.
The FHA, part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, agrees, further noting that besides 8.4 percent of the state’s bridges being in “poor” condition and 50 percent in “good” condition, 41 percent are only “fair.” That’s 11,098 borderline structures.
IDOT’s multi-year program has set aside $2.6 billion in bridge maintenance funding to be spent over the next several years, but ASCE experts say $10 billion is needed.
In The Weekly Post area, there are significant numbers of bridges in poor condition, according to FHA data: 23 out of 211 Fulton County bridges (10.9 percent); 38 out of 305 Knox County bridges (12.4 percent); and 77 out of 351 Peoria County bridges (21.9 percent).
The Kickapoo Creek bridge replacement will be finished in October, IDOT staffer Jeff Stearns told The Weekly Post, but traffic will be reopened in early September.
