CARTERVILLE, IL (WSIL) - For drivers from Illinois, Kentucky, and Missouri, bridges are essential for crossing state lines safely. A high volume of traffic crosses three of those bridges every day, including two in Cairo and one in Chester.
Next week, Cairo's 60/62 bridge over the Mississippi River will close for a year.
“There are over 100 locations on the bridge deck where the joints are deteriorating, the concrete around it plus some of the structural steel joints all need to be repaired," said Doug Helfrich, IDOT District 9 implementation engineer.
During that year, IDOT will make "major structural repairs" to the bridge during that time.
“We’ve done these repairs before similar repairs, but for 100 joints," said Helfrich. "When the plates fail, then it’s hazardous to the traveling public."
A marked detour will be in place for travelers, with additional message boards being used.
"The most likely route would be the I-57 bridge from say the 60/62 Bridge to the I-57 its about a six-mile difference in crossing the river," said Helfrich.
Across the Ohio River, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet is currently in the early stages of replacing the U.S. 51 Ohio River "Cairo" Bridge.
“Bridge building has been pretty central to transportation in Kentucky for as long as we’ve had a highway agency," said the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet District 1 PIO Keith Todd.
He says replacing the U.S. 51 bridge over the Ohio River has been a project more than a decade in the works.
“The plan is we’re moving ahead with the idea of constructing a new bridge near the existing Cairo Bridge," Todd said.
According to Todd, that construction will start around 2027. The bridge was built in 1936 and serves as a North-south connector for U.S. 51 and an east-west transportation route for U.S. 60/62.
It's estimated that more than 4,500 vehicles use that bridge daily, and of that, 35 percent come from commercial trucks.
“There’s a lot of truck traffic," said Todd. "It’s a very active commercial truck route and that’s one of the reasons why we want to go ahead and get moving on construction of the new bridge.�
Back in Illinois, workers in Randolph County are currently seeing progress on the new Chester Bridge that crosses the Mississippi River and connects Illinois Route 150 and Missouri ROUTE 51.
"It’s really exciting for us," said Brian Okenfuss, Chester Bridge project director. "We’ve been waiting for it for a long time. I know the contractor is the same way. They’ve been anxious to get out there."
Okenfuss says the new bridge will be double in width compared to the current bridge.
“The big thing people are going to see with this as far as getting farm equipment across," said Okenfuss. "No longer will they have to call the Chester police to shut the bridge down to let a combine across. They’ll be able to travel across the bridge like anybody else."
Construction on the new Chester Bridge is expected to last until late 2026.
