For more than five years, the Division Street bridge in Blue Island has been closed for safety reasons, unable to carry motorists across the Calumet Sag Channel.
More Top Picks Best Cordless Ratchets
But that will end next summer, when the bridge is expected to reopen after a nearly $8 million rehabilitation project is completed.
During a ceremony Tuesday to announce the start of the project, Mayor Domingo Vargas said the closed bridge has “divided the city in half” and the project to repair it is a “symbol of unity.”
“It’s a rebirth,” Vargas said. “It’s the future of our city that has brought us together.”
The city-owned bridge, built in 1964, was closed when it was deemed unsafe and in need of serious repair. With the nearby Chatham Street Bridge closed for about as long, Ashland Avenue has been the only crossing available to motorists in the eastern section of the city.
Division Street connects Broadway Street, which runs along the northern edge of Calumet Woods Forest Preserve, with Vermont Street. Several local businesses and the city’s Metra station are on Vermont.
The bridge closings have been seen by some as a public safety issue beyond their condition. Blue Island Fire Station No. 2 is at the south end of the Division Street Bridge.
Last winter, an Illinois Department of Transportation snowplow rammed into the Ashland Avenue bridge, forcing its temporary closure for emergency repairs.
Bob Fanning has owned and operated Fannings Riverside Tap Room for 30 years. The tavern is near the bridge, about a block east of Division on Broadway. Fanning believes that his business and others, especially those on the north side, will benefit from the bridge reopening.
The closing has been “inconvenient” for motorists, he said, but not a complete hindrance for getting around town. It’s fortunate that funding was found for the project, he said.
“I know money is tight,” Fanning said, “but I’m just glad to see it’s happening.”
The Illinois Department of Transportation is covering 80 percent of the cost of the project, with Blue Island covering the remainder. Vargas credited state Rep. Bob Rita, D-Blue Island, with being instrumental in securing the IDOT funds.
“Today, we see a light at the end of a long tunnel,” Rita said during Tuesday’s ceremony.
Stephanie Labriola, 51, grew up in Blue Island and believes Tuesday’s ceremony kicking off the reconstruction is an important turnaround for the city.
“We read about bridges falling apart everywhere,” she said. “We must be blessed.”
The $7.8 million project will replace the road leading to and from the truss bridge, restore the piers supporting the bridge and give it a fresh coat of “Blue Island blue” paint. Mike Punches, project manager for Northbrook-based Kenny Construction, said the structural steel underneath the Division Street bridge also will be repair and replaced.
Construction will run through the winter and into the summer next year. Engineers are working with a deadline to have the bridge reopen to traffic before July 1, 2016.
Nick Swedberg is a freelance reporter.