After more than two years, reconstruction of Naperville’s Washington Street bridge over the DuPage River is finally complete and a vital route for downtown drivers, pedestrians and businesses reopened.
All five lanes of the bridge and new pedestrian walkways on both sides of the span are in use, entrances and exits into Washington Street businesses restored and Riverwalk connections from Main Street and into Fredenhagen Park accessible, city officials said.
While there may be occasional lane closures through the end of the month, the city plans to celebrate the project’s completion with a ribbon-cutting at 11 a.m. Friday. The event, featuring live music and free ice cream coupons for the first 150 guests, will be attended by Mayor Scott Wherli and Naperville City Council members.
Because bridge construction was done in conjunction with other major infrastructure work and streetscape improvements, downtown businesses, patrons and drivers have had to put up with the stress of traffic congestion, parking limitations and access issues for more than 24 months.
Those were exacerbated by the project running nearly nine months over schedule due to weather and construction delays. Work started in May 2023 and was projected to be finished by October 2024.
“I understand that it’s been very challenging, and really appreciate everybody’s patience through this process,” said Jennifer Louden, director of the city’s Transportation, Engineering and Development department. “We’re very pleased that all the lanes are now open.”
Some downtown businesses acknowledged the final product — accentuated with stone, iron railings and ornamental light fixtures — is impressive, but the loss of income resulting from the construction has been difficult.
“It’s good that it’s fixed now, but it was for sure a hassle for everybody,” said Grant Wightkin, an Empire Burgers + Brew manager. “Not even just having the foot traffic being low, but people kind of thinking that we weren’t even open on the block.”
Now that it’s done, however, “I feel like our taxpayers’ money definitely went in the positive direction here. It looks beautiful,” Wightkin said.
Rosebud, an Italian restaurant located just a few steps away from the bridge, lost most of its lunch business because many people didn’t realize it was open, representatives said last year. Ultimately, the owners opted to close in August 2024 to do renovations and are expected to reopen later this summer, according to their website.
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The Washington Street bridge was built in the 1920s, widened about 50 years later and renovated in 2004. With deterioration continuing, a 2014 study recommended the entire span be replaced.
In 2016, the city had to impose a 15-ton weight limit to reduce further damage and started doing quarterly inspections, which became monthly in 2019. In September 2022, the Illinois Department of Transportation told the city to reduce the weight limit to 8 tons and close two lanes.
As the city prepared for a full overhaul, traffic studies recommended the span be widened to five lanes and right-turn lanes added at the Aurora Avenue/Washington Street intersection, according to the city’s website.
Construction was primarily funded by the Illinois Department of Transportation, which covered 80% of the cost. The rest of the bill was funded with federal and city money. Louden said the city ended up paying about $3.3 million, which was close to the original estimate.
With the project finally complete, downtown employees say they’re hoping their job commutes are easier and foot traffic to their businesses improve.
“I was very happy,” said Patrick Berryman, who works at the Smoothie King near the bridge. “I take that way for work anyway, sometimes when the construction was going on, I would go around it, but now that it’s finally done, it just makes the commute so much faster.”
For Jojo’s Shake Bar on Jackson Avenue, the worst months of the construction resulted in event cancellations, Assistant General Manager Dessy Turner said.
“A lot of people just called and said, ‘Hey, we can’t deal with the construction and so on, so we’re just gonna cancel,’” she said. “It was literally almost daily at the time.”
With the project now finished, she’s hopeful that the foot traffic to her store and other businesses will return and the lively feel of the downtown district returns, she said.