Unnecessary road closures in Peoria county

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100+
~ 4 mos, 17 days ago

*Edited

Unnecessary road closures in Peoria.

This seems to be happening a lot. Construction projects take a very long time, and they close the road for much longer than is actually necessary due to the construction. Police have been known to close roads minor accidents, such as a vehicle that went off the road and isn't blocking the road at all.

Here is a picture of the 116/Harmon highway bridge over the railroad tracks and Kickapoo creek. It has been closed for 7 weeks now, along with Kickapoo creek road that goes under the bridge along the railroad tracks. The railroad is still open. The bridge itself hasn't actually had any work done to it yet. It is just closed and used to park work vehicles and construction equipment along the side. Kickapoo Creek Road just has an excavator parked on it. Most of the work so far has been clearing trees around the bridge and building a second bridge along side to use to work on the main bridge.

The cost to drivers would be in the thousands of dollars per day, if people were paid minimum wage to drive around. Also, the areas of the bridge that are damaged due to rust are in the sections where the salt water drains from the road. 10 million dollars or watever is a lot to spend for a bridge just to save a few thousand every year for cheaper road salt that is corrosive instead of beet juice or something non corrosive.

It has looked like this picture for 7 weeks now. Closed and nothing going on on the surface.

BoBandy and billybob reacted

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10k+15 yrs
~ 4 mos, 17 days ago

Unnecessary road closures in Peoria. This seems to be happening a lot. Construction projects take a very long time, and they close the road for much longer than is actually necessary due to the construction. Police have been known to close roads minor accidents, such as a vehicle that went off the road and isn't blocking the road at all. Here is a picture of the 116/Harmon highway bridge over the railroad tracks and Kickapoo creek. It has been closed for 7 weeks now, along with Kickapoo creek road that goes under the bridge along the railroad tracks. The railroad is still open. The bridge itself hasn't actually had any work done to it yet. It is just closed and used to park work vehicles and construction equipment along the side. Kickapoo Creek Road just has an excavator parked on it. Most of the work so far has been clearing trees around the bridge and building a second bridge along side to use to work on the main bridge. The cost to drivers would be in the thousands of dollars per day, if people were paid minimum wage to drive around. Also, the areas of the bridge that are damaged due to rust are in the sections where the salt water drains from the road. 10 million dollars or watever is a lot to spend for a bridge just to save a few thousand every year for cheaper road salt that is corrosive instead of beet juice or something non corrosive. It has looked like this picture for 7 weeks now. Closed and nothing going on on the surface.

@MadScientist :
You are alone, There are lots complaints and concerns about that locations, No one seems too optimistic about that opening up any time soon,

10k+14.7 yrs
~ 4 mos, 17 days ago

We drove on Airport road down to Kickapoo Creek road about a week ago on the way to Pottstown. While stopped at the 3-way stop, it looked like there were workers under the bridge.
It's possible it took time to build a workers access bridge so rehab/replacement of beams and decks can be done. Construction season usually ramps up 1st week of March.

I saw signs along I-474 going to Peoria saying week of Feb. 23, construction was restarting on that bridge near I-74 junction that was replaced last year. Except it will be the West bound lanes this time.

IDOT will start work on replacing bridge decks on the WB McCluggage Bridge, and reroute WB traffic across new Eastbound span. Apparently that's why that span was built that way, and workers were busy last fall constructing ramps on and off.

Those that complain about roads and bridges being built or rebuilt: do you also complain about the Illinois gas tax that pays for all or most of this?

100+
~ 4 mos, 17 days ago

If the company was charged $2000 for every day that less than two lanes are open to traffic ...

100+8.5 yrs
~ 4 mos, 16 days ago

Ever think its closed because of safety/ structure concerns? Its being replaced for a reason.
On another note, railroads are notorius for holding up projects. They really dont care about a bridge or roadway. Could be a possibility

skutfarcus and DennisinPeoria reacted

100+
~ 4 mos, 16 days ago

*Edited

Ever think its closed because of safety/ structure concerns? Its being replaced for a reason.

@Skimo : Yes, and no, not closed for a valid reason. They could impose a weight limit and close lanes and keep the bridge open. They either just don't care, or they have some agenda to promote inefficiency and increase gas tax revenue or something.

A poor state of repair is the excuse that would likely be given, but if that were true, the bridge should have been closed even sooner.

Those that complain about roads and bridges being built or rebuilt: do you also complain about the Illinois gas tax that pays for all or most of this?

@DennisinPeoria : Do you think the government would let a gas station wait two years to pay them fuel sales tax that they collected?

25k+19.5 yrs
~ 4 mos, 16 days ago

They could impose a weight limit and close lanes and keep the bridge open.

This is what I said about the old McCluggage. Yes, it was in poor shape. But they could have left it open to passenger vehicle traffic only, fixed the deck and painted the Westbound with no need to have head on style traffic on the East bound. And if the old McCluggage would have been deemed too dangerous, THEN move all traffic to the Eastbound. By the time both bridges are finally open with traffic flowing in their respective direction, they will be closing Eastbound for pothole and other repairs.

MadScientist reacted

10k+17.2 yrs
~ 4 mos, 16 days ago

DennisinPeoria : Do you think the government would let a gas station wait two years to pay them fuel sales tax that they collected?

@MadScientist : This is why the State of Illinois switched to collecting motor fuel tax from the wholesaler not the retailer a number of years back. That said any local fuel tax is collected by the local agency and could lead to the condition you mention.

10+
~ 4 mos, 16 days ago

@MadScientist : "The cost to drivers would be in the thousands of dollars per day, if people were paid minimum wage to drive around. "

What????

100+
~ 4 mos, 16 days ago

What????

@BoBandy : If 2000 vehicles per day spend 6 minutes having to go around the closed roads, that's 200 hours per day. At $15 per hour, that adds up to a cost of $3000 per day to the general public in the area.

BoBandy reacted

10k+17.2 yrs
~ 4 mos, 16 days ago

BoBandy : If 2000 vehicles per day spend 6 minutes having to go around the closed roads, that's 200 hours per day. At $15 per hour, that adds up to a cost of $3000 per day to the general public in the area.

@MadScientist : You are right. DOT uses a similar "adverse travel" formula to what you are quoting, but then they also compare it to the cost increase if they use staged construction and try to keep 1/2 of the bridge open while they rebuild the other half. That used to be a rule of thumb increase of 20%. They actually prefer not to do a detour, so a full closure might indicate a pretty poor condition structure.

Skimo and DennisinPeoria reacted

100+8.5 yrs
~ 4 mos, 16 days ago

The article in Journal Star in early January stated the "bridge cannot be stage constructed" because there is a 90 year old structure(truss) under the main driving lanes.
If one thinks about it, I'm guessing the work going on may be on the underside for falsework installation to protect the railroad when the bridge demolition/removal takes place. After all, it is a live railroad and ya just can't drop steel and concrete on it .One just doesn't see the activity.
And despite what seem to think, nobody is scheming to raise the gas tax or line someone's pockets.
Sometimes there is no other way to reconstruct without full closure. Case in point, the Murray Baker a few years back

CCubs, DennisinPeoria and mypeez reacted

10+
~ 4 mos, 16 days ago

*Edited

@MadScientist :
But the road is closed and they already know that, don't they? They've already established an alternative. Do you think they drive up to the barricades several times a day hoping they're gone? LOL

25k+19.5 yrs
~ 4 mos, 15 days ago

Sometimes there is no other way to reconstruct without full closure. Case in point, the Murray Baker a few years back

@Skimo : Which they should have done something different with the Fayette entrance onto I-74. I just happened to have my Waze app open the other day going through that area and got a notification that it was a "high accident" area. Great. It gets torn apart and questionably made worse.

100+8.5 yrs
~ 4 mos, 15 days ago

Skimo : Which they should have done something different with the Fayette entrance onto I-74. I just happened to have my Waze app open the other day going through that area and got a notification that it was a "high accident" area. Great. It gets torn apart and questionably made worse.

@AntiRanchDrssng : Obviously, not perfect. But.....I'm sure nothing a total new Murray Baker with 3 lanes in each direction wouln't solve. Same issue exists on East Peoria side.
Only probably $300-$400 million and 3-4 years of total closure thus you have what you have

DennisinPeoria reacted

100+
~ 4 mos, 15 days ago

*Edited

Why are y'all defending this incompetence and carelessness? Zero work has been done to the bridge in 7 weeks, yet it remains closed to all except the occasional vehicle that drives around the barracades and the vehicles of the construction workers. Kickapoo creek road is closed as well despite zero work being done to the bridge itself so far. They have an excavator parked on Kickapoo creek road. They should park it in the grass and leave the road open.

In the near future they may start doing actual work on the bridge and it may need to be closed. I get that. But they just can't be bothered with having it open until then even though it will have caused hundreds of thousands of dollars of increased cost to drivers.

If one thinks about it, I'm guessing the work going on may be on the underside for falsework installation to protect the railroad when the bridge demolition/removal takes place.

@Skimo : I don't have to guess. Zero work to the actual bridge has been done. Construction equipment is currently parked under it and a temporary bridge along the side is being built. The concrete spalling and other visible damage is only in the areas where water, and winter salt water, has run down from the roadway.

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