Major Bridge Projects for 2020
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| Image credit: News Tribune |
Motorists can expect two-way traffic and plenty of construction work this summer on Interstate 80 on the north side of La Salle and also on the four-lane bridge at Hennepin.
Repairs are coming soon to the Interstate 180 Illinois River bridge that links Bureau County to Route 71 and to the industrial lands north of Hennepin.
Illinois Department of Transportation has been making repairs on the bridge that accommodated traffic to the steel mill for several years and which now receives a great deal of truck traffic to and from the Marquis Energy ethanol plant north of Hennepin.
Crews have been making repairs on the Interstate 180 bridge sporadically for the past few years. Built in 1968, the bridge needs a new deck, said Nate Sell, construction field engineer for IDOT.
“It will be staged construction,” he said of the project, which will last for three years.
All four lanes utilize the same bridge structure. The first year, IDOT wants the crew to rebuild the deck for the westbound lanes. The second year, the contractors should do the eastbound lanes. A painting project is planned for the third year.
At a bid letting last Friday in Springfield, Civil Constructors Inc. of Freeport submitted the lowest of three bids for complete bridge deck replacement, pavement restructuring and replacement of the approach.
Civil Construction’s bid came in at $25.1 million, according to Illinois Department of Transportation.
D Construction Inc. of Coal City bid $27.3 million, and ICC Group Inc. of Elburn was willing to do the job for $29 million.
La Salle overpasses, Little Vermilion River bridge
Work also is on tap for Interstate 80 overpass structures that go over Airport Road and La Salle Road (also known as May Road or Raccuglia Drive) on the north side of La Salle-Peru.
D Construction was the lone bidder ($16.4 million) for an Interstate 80 project calling for “1.278 miles of superstructure replacements and bridge repairs from La Salle Road to the Little Vermilion River at La Salle.
Sell said the job requires work on six structures — parallel structures over the Little Vermilion River, a pair over Airport Road and a pair over La Salle Road/May Road. The latter bridges, the farthest to the west, need repairs.
The bridges over Airport Road and the Little Vermilion River bridges need superstructure and deck replacement.
Interstate 80 traffic will be routed onto the south half of the interstate for two-way traffic through the work zone during the projects. After one side is done, IDOT and the contractor will move traffic to the other side.
Source: News Tribune