Jefferson Street Bridge Out: How Will It Impact Downtown Joliet?

JOLIET, IL — This week may mark the end of downtown Joliet's efforts to have a strong summer for outdoor events and tourism, thanks to the latest drawbridge failure, this one for the Jefferson Street Bridge. The bridge broke on Wednesday, and nobody knows if it will be repaired and how long it will need to be closed to traffic.

"The closure is necessary to replace equipment and electrical components in the tender house that operates the movable bridge," the IDOT press release revealed.

Meanwhile, Joliet Mayor Terry D'Arcy and City Manager Beth Beatty can stand outside City Hall and watch helplessly as state of Illinois bridge repair crews attempt to size up the problem, but that's all they can do. The bridge belongs to the Illinois Department of Transportation, not the city of Joliet, so when it breaks, it's IDOT's responsibility to try to fix it, if it can be fixed.

The broken Jefferson Street Bridge means that hundreds of lawyers and tens of thousands of people going to the Will County Courthouse will face major delays as they figure out a way to navigate other roads and streets. The Joliet Slammers baseball season is in jeopardy because only a tiny fraction of fans will be able to get to the baseball games now.

Maybe the time has finally come for Joliet city leaders to turn downtown Joliet into a giant landfill and create a new city center, way out west, in the Kendall County portion of Joliet along Caton Farm Road.

This way, Joliet citizens and visitors will never ever be inconvenienced by another long barge passing through downtown Joliet's Des Plaines River canal system, and there will be no reasons to hit the panic button the next time one of Joliet's five drawbridges has another emergency repair.

Joliet Patch was at the bridge on Thursday morning and talked to city councilman Joe Clement: