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Work to begin this month on area's worst heavily-traveled bridge

Posted August 06, 2007 11:00 pm

John Sharp

Traffic is so thick around Britnie Dugger's hair salon and spa that it can be a struggle just to get her clients into the parking lot.

One reason for this: multiple lane closures on nearby U.S. Route 24's bridge over Kickapoo Creek have caused traffic back-ups since before the business opened in December.

"People coming from Peoria will be stopped waiting to get here for awhile," said Julie Middleton, one of Dugger's employees at Artistic Touch Salon and Spa on Adams Street.

The heavily-traveled bridge over Kickapoo Creek has deteriorated so much that it has to be reconstructed soon. In the wake of last week's tragic bridge collapse in Minnesota, state transportation officials realize the public's concerns in getting this structure - rated in the worst condition among bridges in the Tri-County Area carrying 10,000 vehicles or more a day - on the track toward construction.

"It was probably in as much need of repair than any other bridge," Shane Larson, an operations engineer with the Illinois Department of Transportation said, adding that it's simply a coincidence the Route 24 bridge work is starting the same month as one of the worst bridge disasters in U.S. history.

Springfield-based Halverson Construction was awarded a $1.4 million contract in June to reconstruct the Route 24 bridge. Work on the bridge - which carries 28,800 vehicles a day- will begin once contractual issues, considered by IDOT officials to be a "formality," are resolved.

Once work begins, IDOT anticipates a new bridge on both east and westbound Route 24 over Kickapoo Creek to be completed by December, weather permitting.

IDOT construction engineer Omer Osman said Monday the scope of the project involves removal of all concrete beams and a complete replacement of its deck. During construction, he said, two lanes in both directions will be opened over the bridge, which would be a similar situation compared to what motorists experience right now. However, there could be further lane reductions at times.

"There is a potential for the contractor to use an extra lane loading and unloading materials," he said. "But it will be during non-rush hours."

Problems with the 27-year-old bridge surfaced last year during a routine inspection, Osman said. Further inspections last fall revealed that the bridge - referred to as a precast, prestressed concrete (PPC) deck beam - was deteriorating.

Larson said IDOT chose to limit the bridge's 40-ton weight limit by barricading two lanes on the bridge. On westbound Route 24 leading into Bartonville from Interstate 474, the middle lane is barricaded; while the far left lane is blocked on the eastbound side.

It has been this way, even without any construction activity going on, for about one year.

"We could have allowed traffic to use all of the lanes (over Kickapoo Creek), but we would have had to put a load restriction on that," Larson said, admitting that IDOT did not choose to implement load restrictions due to the high number of commercial trucks driving through the area.

Larson said the bridge is now inspected once every three months. Normally, bridges are only inspected once or twice yearly, he said.

According to federal transportation data analyzed by MSNBC.com, Route 24 over Kickapoo Creek was given the region's lowest "sufficiency rating," which varies from the best score of 100 percent down to 0, by earning a 16 percent among bridges carrying 10,000 vehicles or more.

A score of 80 percent indicates that some rehabilitation may be needed, while a score of 50 percent or less shows that replacement may be in order, the news agency reports. The rating is one of several factors government officials use to prioritize where funding goes to fix bridges.

By comparison, the next lowest sufficiency rated bridge in Peoria County is on Illinois Route 29, less than a mile south of Mossville Road. That bridge's sufficiency rating was at 39.4 percent.

The Interstate 35W bridge that collapsed last week in Minnesota had a sufficiency rating of 50 percent.

Larson said motorists should not be concerned over the road's low ratings. For one, Route 24 carries fewer than 30,000 vehicles a day, substantially less than the 140,000 or so that I-35W carried daily.

In addition, the Route 24 bridge is a completely different design and much smaller than the I-35W bridge.

"They are different types of bridges and you always caution someone when you compare numbers like that," he said.

John Sharp can be reached at (309) 686-3234 or jsharp@pjstar.com.

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