Eldamain Road bridge to have longest span over the Fox River in Kendall County

Editor’s note: Here is the final installment in a series of three stories on the Eldamain Road bridge project to span the Fox River between Yorkville and Plano. Look for the first parts of the series, “Making no small plans,” and “Creating connections,” at KendallCountyNow.com. This story, “Building the bridge,” focuses on construction of the crossing.

The Eldamain Road bridge is an impressive engineering feat by any measure.

Much has been made of the historic nature of the bridge, just the eighth Fox River crossing site in Kendall County and the first since the opening of the Orchard Road bridge near Oswego in 2001. At 1,557 feet, the Eldamain span becomes the county’s longest.

When motorists drive over the Eldamain bridge, they will notice a major difference from the Orchard Road structure, which takes a major curve and travels on an incline upward from north to south.

The Eldamain bridge crosses the river and adjoining flood plain on a perfectly straight line and will carry vehicles along a completely level trajectory.

The bridge features a simple, functional design that Kendall County Highway Engineer Fran Klaas describes as “very utilitarian.”

The span is supported by seven gigantic concrete piers. From the southern shore, the piers are numbered 1 through 7. Only pier number 2 rests in the Fox River. Pier 1 sits between the southern shoreline and the south end of the bridge.

The other five piers are embedded in the expansive floodplain north of the waterway. The central support, pier number 4, rises about 65 feet from the lowest point below the bridge.

The concrete piers support eight lines of steel I-beams that extend the length of the bridge structure. The beams will support the concrete deck, which has already has been partially poured.

The hammerhead-style structures at the top of the piers supporting the I-beams reach out farther than the width of the current two-lane roadway deck, allowing for future expansion.

The bridge includes about 5 million pounds of structural steel and another 1 million pounds of steel rebar.

The $35 million project came in under the budget estimate by $10 million, Klaas said.

“We hit the timing on the bid letting,” Klaas said.

As bid out, the cost of the bridge itself is about $18 million, while the road work comes in at another $17 million, Klaas said.

Construction for the bridge structure began March 10, 2021.

Until now, work on the bridge has moved quickly, and the span was expected to open to traffic by the end of this year, ahead of schedule.

“The job has gone pretty smoothly,” said Joe Spika of Aurora’s H.R. Green, the engineering firm overseeing the work. “There’s a lot of coordination between contractors and crafts. It’s like putting together a puzzle.”

However, completion of the bridge may be delayed by a labor dispute.

Local 150 of the International Union of Operating Engineers went on strike June 7 at more than 30 quarries and mines across northern Illinois.

Aggregate materials including sand, gravel and crushed stone, indispensable for the production of concrete, are no longer being extracted.

A prolonged strike could quickly slow down the bridge work.

“This puts the opening in jeopardy,” Klaas said. “If the strike is not resolved soon, the bridge opening will get pushed to next year.”

Whether the bridge opens this year or next, it will change driving patterns and promote economic development in Kendall County.

The project extends from River Road just north of the Fox River to Route 71 and farther south on West High Point Road.

The key connection created by the bridge will be from U.S. Route 34 to Illinois Route 71, two of Kendall County’s principal east-west thoroughfares.

At the southern end of the project, drawings have been rendered to show a future Lisbon Road extension, making a connection with Walker Road to the south, but there are no immediate plans to carry out the extension.

To the north, the existing Eldamain Road extends all the way to Kane County.

Eldamain Road is the boundary between Plano and Yorkville. Both municipalities and the county are looking at the road as an engine of economic development.