ComEd To The Rescue? Jefferson Street Bridge Out But Repairs Underway In Joliet

JOLIET, IL — In one week, Mayor Terry D'Arcy will give his first-ever State of the City address in one of the hardest places to visit — downtown Joliet. If D'Arcy speaks to a ballroom of half-empty chairs at the Renaissance Center, it may be because it's practically impossible for people to visit downtown Joliet now that the Jefferson Street Bridge is out of commission once again.

The last time the Jefferson Street Bridge broke it was out of commission for 20 consecutive months, from June 1, 2020 — until Feb. 21, 2022.

Now, three years later, there's an electrical problem inside the bridgetender's house. But the good news is that the repairs are finally underway, a week later. On Wednesday, there were about 10 ComEd utility trucks congregated along the east side of the Jefferson Street Bridge near the bridgetender house as ComEd workers made repairs to an underground vault system.

"Bridge closure," Joliet City Manager Beth Beatty announced at Tuesday night's Joliet City Council meeting. "We have received a lot of feedback regarding the closure of the Jefferson Street moveable bridge. I want to remind residents that the bridge is owned and maintained by the Illinois Department of Transportation, not the city of Joliet.

"The drawbridge was shut down on Wednesday (May 14) due to an electrical short that has disabled one of the two motors responsible for raising and lowering the bridge. We spoke to IDOT this morning and I want to defer to our director of public works for the full update."

"So we did have a call today with representatives from IDOT, their consultant contractors," city of Joliet public works director Greg Ruddy explained. "There was a rather lengthy discussion on how to proceed forward to get the bridge open as quickly as possible.

"The current timing they're saying is likely six to eight weeks of repair work. There was an electrical cabinet and a motor that shorted out. Now they did discuss other options to potentially open it sooner," Ruddy continued. "There's talk of getting a drive system from elsewhere, installing it, but these are complex structures. It's not as simple as just installing something in there and letting it rip. They're very carefully balanced so there was discussion on if they went up and failed with one motor, they would be stuck in that position and that would restrict both vehicular and river traffic. There was a very lengthy discussion on all these items.

"But again, the current expected closure is six to eight weeks," Ruddy stressed. "There was also discussion on the raising and lowering of the bridges. So, the bridges are raised and lowered based on signals from our river traffic with the exception of two periods of time 7:30 in the morning to 8:30 in the morning during rush hour and then 4:15 to 5:15 p.m. in the afternoon. Those restrictions are regulated by the U.S. Coast Guard, and it is part of federal regulations that the bridge is not to be raised during those hours to allow vehicles to cross. The city requested to have IDOT have a discussion with the Coast Guard about potentially extending those hours for the short term to allow more vehicles to get across the bridge."