Is Jefferson Street Bridge Reopening? IDOT Reveals Answer

JOLIET, IL — If you've been wondering whether the Jefferson Street Bridge over the Des Plaines River in downtown Joliet will ever get repaired during your lifetime, the answer appears to be yes.

On Tuesday night, three top officials with the Illinois Department of Transportation attended the Joliet City Council meeting at the urging of Mayor Bob O'Dekirk.

The mayor and city officials are often the target of stinging criticism from Joliet residents even though the city of Joliet has no control over the Jefferson Street Bridge or any of the downtown drawbridges including Ruby Street, Jackson Street, Cass Street and McDonough Street.

All the bridges are maintained and operated by the Illinois Department of Transportation.

At times, it seems like IDOT has been working on repairing the Jefferson Street Bridge at the speed of a turtle. The Jefferson Street Bridge has been shutdown to traffic since June 1, 2020.

During Tuesday's City Council meeting, the IDOT officials said that Joliet citizens can expect to have the repaired Jefferson Street back in operation "by the end of the first week or second week in January."

The most recent problem has involved trying to get all the new mechanical parts to line up properly and function together, city officials were told.

After receiving pressure from O'Dekirk and other downtown community leaders last spring, IDOT agreed to make the Cass Street Bridge a two-way thoroughfare starting May 1 while the Jefferson Street Bridge remained under repair.

On Tuesday night, the three IDOT leaders told the Council that their agency's plan is to have the Cass Street Bridge return to being a one-way bridge once the Jefferson Street Bridge repairs are all done.

Mayor O'Dekirk and Councilwoman Jan Quillman urged IDOT to strongly considering keeping the Cass Street Bridge as a two-way thoroughfare on a permanent basis.

"The Cass Street Bridge has been very successful," Quillman said. "People are very pleased with that."

After the meeting, O'Dekirk told Joliet Patch that "in all fairness, what we heard from IDOT was encouraging."

O'Dekirk pointed out that city officials were originally told that the Jefferson Street Bridge would be done and back open by October, then the completion date changed to Thanksgiving. In both cases, the deadline to get the work done wasn't met by IDOT.

"These three (at the meeting) were all IDOT engineers, so I think they have an idea of what they're talking about," O'Dekirk said.