'At long last': Millington Road bridge reopens

UPDATED 3:30 P.M. MONDAY, AUG. 17:

MILLINGTON – Local motorists, rejoice: The Millington Road bridge is now open to the public for good, according to Kendall County officials.

Fran Klaas, highway engineer for Kendall County, said on Monday, Aug. 17 the bridge officially opened back up without any access restrictions at lunchtime. He said he's been seeing a lot of traffic on the roadway already.

"Evidently, the word is out," Klaas said.

Klaas said the project isn't officially completed yet and workers still need to do some clean up underneath the bridge. However, he said, it's nothing that should close the bridge down again.

"I'm hoping it's good for another 50 years," Klaas said.

The update comes after Kendall County Board Chairman Scott Gryder said during a Thursday, Aug. 13 committee of the whole meeting that the Millington Road bridge was scheduled to re-open on Monday.

"At long last," Gryder said.

Gryder said county officials originally expected the project to be finished by Thursday. However, he said, the concrete still needed another 72 hours to set and that will have to happen over the weekend.

"So by our board meeting Tuesday, hopefully, we will be able to celebrate that momentous occasion," Gryder said.

The estimated $1.6 million Millington Road bridge is a combined project between Kendall and LaSalle counties. Gryder said another reason why it took a while for the project to be completed was because LaSalle County was managing the project and they had to go through the federal government to complete it.

The bridge, which spans the Fox River in Millington at the Kendall-LaSalle county border, had been closed for more than two years after the Illinois Department of Transportation initially closed the bridge in May 2017. That was after officials discovered a scour hole under the north pier of the bridge during a routine bridge inspection.

County officials previously attributed the project delays to consistently high water levels from rainfall after one resident brought the matter back up to the County Board in June 2019. County officials also said in July 2019 they were told that, even though water levels had dropped, the waters were still moving too fast for contractors to be in them, since they still have to take chainsaws to tree limbs and brush at the site.

The project had started back up again later in July 2019 but it was delayed again in September due to water levels rising again from more rainfall, according to county officials.